Panama Subnational Rainfall Indicators: Dekadal Observations and Forecasts

Panama subnational rainfall indicators provided by the World Food Programme, derived from CHIRPS satellite imagery and CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts. The data tracks 10-day (dekadal) precipitation levels, rolling aggregations, and long-term averages across administrative units. It is updated six times per month to transition from short-term forecasts to final historical observations.

Use Cases

• Drought monitoring using the 3-month rainfall anomaly percentage (r3q)
• Agricultural cycle planning based on 10-day rainfall forecasts (rfh where type is forecast)
• Climate trend analysis by comparing current dekadal rainfall (rfh) against long-term averages (rfh_avg)

Strengths

• Integrates both historical observations and CHIRPS-GEFS short-term forecasts
• Provides standardized WFP Pcode references for administrative unit joins
• Includes long-term averages (rfh_avg, r1h_avg) for baseline comparison

Limitations

• Spatial precision is limited by the number of pixels (n_pixels) available for each administrative unit aggregation
• Data status is fluid, requiring users to filter the type column to avoid mixing forecasts with final observations

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP) using CHIRPS and CHIRPS-GEFS data

Collection Method

Satellite imagery combined with in-situ station data and meteorological forecasts

Freshness

Updated six times per month on the 1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, and 26th.

Geography

Panama (subnational)