Analysis of daily rainfall processes in lower extremadura (Spain) and homogenization of the data

Summary In this paper we analyze, from the point of view of stochastic processes, daily rainfall data recorded at the Badajoz Observatory (Southwestern Spain) since the beginning of the century. We attempt to identify any periodicities or trends in the daily rainfall occurrences and their dependence structure, and attempt to select the appropriate point stochastic model for the daily rainfall series.Standard regression analysis, graphical methods and the Cramer statistic show a rise in the number of cases of light rain (between 0.1 and 5 mm/d) and a decline in the number of cases of moderate to heavy rain (> 5 mm/d) in the daily rainfall at least at the 5% significance level.That the homogenization process was satisfactory is shown by the mean interarrival time of the homogenized series and the test of the rate of homogenized daily rainfall occurrences. Our analysis also shows that the behavior of the spectra of the homogenized daily rainfall counts is completely different from that of a Poisson process, so that the hypothesis of a non-homogeneous Poisson process is rejected.With 7 Figures