Precipitation patterns in Iowa and Nebraska and their distributions in comparison to model output from RegCM2
Date
1999
Authors
Kampa, Scott Everett
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Advisor
Gutowski, William J.
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Abstract
This paper studies the ability of a regional climate model (RegCM2) to capture the precipitation events occurring in Iowa and Nebraska from 1979 to 1988 every six hours. This is done using correlation coefficients in relation to the distance between stations and intensity frequencies. The results from the correlation coefficients showed that the model was able to duplicate the qualitative relationship between correlation and distance, that being that correlation decreases as the distance between stations increases. However, the model also produced a much stronger correlation than the observational data. During the warm season, the pattern tended to be slightly weaker. During the cold season, the pattern was stronger. The model also shows good qualitative measure of the pattern of intense precipitation. Observations show that more intense events occur with less frequency than less intense events. The model captured this pattern. However, the model again failed to represent the observations. The model was consistently less than the observations for events with greater than 2.00 cm of precipitation for six hours.
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thesis