Seychelles Subnational Rainfall Indicators and CHIRPS-GEFS Forecasts

Delivering dekadal rainfall indicators for Seychelles aggregated by subnational administrative units, produced by the World Food Programme using CHIRPS v2 and CHIRPS-GEFS satellite imagery. It includes 10-day, 1-month, and 3-month rainfall totals, historical averages, and percentage anomalies across all districts. The data is updated six times per month to transition from short-term forecasts to final observations.

Use Cases

• Monitoring drought conditions by analyzing the rainfall anomaly percentage (rfq) relative to long-term averages
• Predicting short-term agricultural water availability using the 10-day rainfall forecast (rfh) and the type column
• Assessing seasonal moisture trends by comparing 3-month rolling aggregations (r3h) against historical averages (r3h_avg)

Strengths

• Includes 9 distinct rainfall indicators for multi-temporal analysis
• Integrates both satellite imagery and in-situ station data via CHIRPS v2
• Provides standardized Pcode references for easy joining with other WFP datasets

Limitations

• Satellite-derived estimates may vary from local ground-truth gauges in specific microclimates
• Statistical reliability of aggregates depends on the n_pixels count, which varies by administrative unit size
• Data status is fluid, requiring users to frequently replace forecast records with final observations

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Satellite imagery integrated with in-situ station data and GEFS short-term forecasts

Freshness

Updated six times per month on a fixed schedule (1st, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, 26th).

Geography

Seychelles