Philippines Subnational Rainfall: Dekadal Indicators and Forecasts

WFP provides dekadal rainfall indicators for the Philippines aggregated by subnational administrative units using CHIRPS v2 satellite imagery and CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts. The data includes 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month rainfall totals, averages, and anomalies updated as recently as March 2026.

Use Cases

• Drought monitoring using the 3-month rainfall anomaly (r3q) to identify regions with significant precipitation deficits
• Agricultural planning by comparing current 10-day rainfall (rfh) against the long-term average (rfh_avg)
• Flood risk assessment by analyzing 1-month rolling aggregations (r1h) in specific subnational Pcode units

Strengths

• Includes 9 distinct rainfall indicators including anomalies and rolling averages
• Uses standardized WFP Pcode references for administrative unit joins
• Provides pixel counts (n_pixels) to indicate spatial data density for each aggregate

Limitations

• Relies on satellite-derived estimates (CHIRPS) which may vary from ground-truth rain gauges
• Data is subject to revision as it moves from forecast to preliminary to final status
• Geographic resolution is limited to administrative unit aggregates rather than raw grid cells

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP) using CHIRPS v2 and CHIRPS-GEFS

Collection Method

Aggregation of satellite imagery and in-situ station data

Freshness

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

Geography

Philippines