Similarity-based multi-model ensemble approach for 1–15-day advance prediction of monsoon rainfall over India

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - The southwest (SW) monsoon season (June, July, August and September) is the major period of rainfall over the Indian region. The present study focuses on the...     

Dynamics of distinct intraseasonal oscillation in summer monsoon rainfall over the Meghalaya–Bangladesh–western Myanmar region: covariability between the tropics and mid-latitudes

Detailed spatiotemporal structures for the submonthly-scale (7–25 days) intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) in summer monsoon rainfall and atmospheric circulation were investigated in South Asia using high-quality rainfall and reanalysis datasets. The Meghalaya–Bangladesh–coast of the western Myanmar (MBWM) region is the predominant area of submonthly-scale ISO in the Asian monsoon regions. The distinct rainfall ISO is caused by a remarkable alternation of low-level zonal wind between westerly and easterly flows around the Gangetic Plain on the same timescales. In the active ISO phase of the MBWM, a strong low-level westerly/southwesterly flows around the plain and a center of cyclonic vorticity appears over Bangladesh. Hence, a local southerly flows toward the Meghalaya Plateau and there is strong southwesterly flow towards the coast along southeastern Bangladesh and western Myanmar, resulting in an increase in orographic rainfall. Rainfall also increases over the lowland area of the MBWM due to the low-level convergence in the boundary layer under the strong cyclonic circulation. The submonthly-scale low-level wind fluctuation around the MBWM is caused by a westward moving n = 1 equatorial Rossby (ER) wave. When the anticyclonic (cyclonic) anomaly related to the ER wave approaches the Bay of Bengal from the western Pacific, humid westerly/southwesterly (easterly/southeasterly) flows enhance around the Gangetic Plain on the northern fringe of the anticyclone (cyclone) and in turn promote (reduce) rainfall in the MBWM. Simultaneously, robust circulation signals are observed over the mid-latitudes. In the active phase, cyclonic anomalies appear over and around the TP, having barotropic vertical structure and also contributing to the enhancement of low-level westerly flow around the Gangetic Plain. In the upper troposphere, an anticyclonic anomaly is also observed upstream of the cyclonic anomaly over the TP, having wavetrain structure. The mid-latitude circulation around the TP likely helps to induce the distinct ISO there in conjunction with the equatorial waves. Thus, the distinct ISO in the MBWM is strongly enhanced locally (~500 km) by the terrain features, although the atmospheric circulation causing the ISO has a horizontal scale of ~6,000 km or more, extending across the whole Asian monsoon system from the tropics to mid-latitudes.     

North-East monsoon rainfall extremes over the southern peninsular India and their association with El Niño

The present study investigates the relationship between extreme north-east (NE) monsoon rainfall (NEMR) over the Indian peninsula region and El Niño forcing. This turns out to be a critical science issue especially after the 2015 Chennai flood. The puzzle being while most El Niños favour good NE monsoon, some don’t. In fact some El Niño years witnessed deficit NE monsoon. Therefore two different cases (or classes) of El Niños are considered for analysis based on standardized NEMR index and Niño 3.4 index with case-1 being both Niño-3.4 and NEMR indices greater than +1 and case-2 being Niño-3.4 index greater than +1 and NEMR index less than −1. Composite analysis suggests that SST anomalies in the central and eastern Pacific are strong in both cases but large differences are noted in the spatial distribution of SST over the Indo-western Pacific region. This questions our understanding of NEMR as mirror image of El Niño conditions in the Pacific. It is noted that the favourable excess NEMR in case-1 is due to anomalous moisture transport from Bay of Bengal and equatorial Indian Ocean to southern peninsular India. Strong SST gradient between warm western Indian Ocean (and Bay of Bengal) and cool western Pacific induced strong easterly wind anomalies during NE monsoon season favour moisture transport towards the core NE monsoon region. Further anomalous moisture convergence and convection over the core NE monsoon region supported positive rainfall anomalies in case-1. While in case-2, weak SST gradients over the Indo-western Pacific and absence of local low level convergence over NE monsoon region are mainly responsible for deficit rainfall. The ocean dynamics in the Indian Ocean displayed large differences during case-1 and case-2, suggesting the key role of Rossby wave dynamics in the Indian Ocean on NE monsoon extremes. Apart from the large scale circulation differences the number of cyclonic systems land fall for case-1 and case-2 have also contributed for variations in NE monsoon rainfall extremes during El Niño years. This study indicates that despite having strong warming in the central and eastern Pacific, NE monsoon rainfall variations over the southern peninsular India is mostly determined by SST gradient over the Indo-western Pacific region and number of systems formation in the Bay of Bengal and their land fall. The paper concludes that though the favourable large scale circulation induced by Pacific is important in modulating the NE monsoon rainfall the local air sea interaction plays a key role in modulating or driving rainfall extremes associated with El Niño.     

Detecting rainfall trends in twentieth century (1871–2006) over Orissa State, India

Climate change has affected the temperature and rainfall characteristics worldwide. However, the changes are not equal for all regions and have localized intensity and must be quantified locally to manage the natural resources. Orissa is an eastern state in India where agricultural activities mainly depends on the rainfall and thus face problems due to changing patterns of rainfall due to changing climate. In the present study, attempts were made to study temporal variation in monthly, seasonal and annual rainfall over the state during the period from 1871 to 2006. Long term changes in rainfall characteristics were determined by both parametric and non-parametric tests. The analysis revealed a long term insignificant decline trend of annual as well as monsoon rainfall, where as increasing trend in post-monsoon season over the state of Orissa. Rainfall during winter and summer seasons showed an increasing trend. Statistically monsoon rainfall can be considered as very dependable as the coefficient of variation is 14.2%. However, there is decreasing monthly rainfall trend in June, July and September, where as increasing trend in August. This trend is more predominant in last 10?year. Based on departure from mean, rainfall analysis also showed an increased number of dry years compared to wet years after 1950. This changing rainfall trend during monsoon months is major concern for the rain-fed agriculture. More over, this will affect hydro power generation and reservoir operation in the region.     

Documentary evidence of climate variability during cold seasons in Lesotho, southern Africa, 1833–1900

This study presents the first 19th century cold season climate chronology for the Kingdom of Lesotho in southern Africa. The chronology is constructed using a variety of documentary sources including letters, diaries, reports, monographs and newspaper articles obtained from southern African and British archives. Information relating to cold season weather phenomena during the austral autumn, winter and early spring months were recorded verbatim. Each of the cold seasons from 1833 to 1900 was then classified as “very severe”, “severe” or “normal/mild”, with a confidence rating ranging from low (1) to high (3) awarded against each annual classification. The accuracy of the document-derived chronology was verified against temperature data for Maseru for the period 1893–1900. Excellent correspondence of the document-derived chronology with the Maseru instrumental data and also with other global proxy temperature records for the 19th century is achieved. The results indicate 12 (18% of the total) very severe, 16 (23%) severe and 40 (59%) normal/mild cold seasons between 1833 and 1900. The overall trend is for more severe and snow-rich cold seasons during the early part of the study period (1833–1854) compared with the latter half of the 19th century (with the exception of the 1880s). A reduction in the duration of the frost season by over 20 days during the 19th century is also tentatively identified. Several severe to very severe cold seasons in Lesotho follow after major tropical and SH volcanic eruptions; such years are usually characterized by early frosts, and frequent and heavy snowfalls. The blocking of solar radiation and the enhanced northward displacement of polar fronts that are directly or indirectly associated with volcanic events, may account for many of the most severe Lesotho winters during the 19th century.     

Performance of GCMs for seasonal prediction over India��a case study for 2009 monsoon

The 2009 drought in India was one of the major droughts that the country faced in the last 100?years. This study describes the anomalous features of 2009 summer monsoon and examines real-time seasonal predictions made using six general circulation models (GCMs). El Ni?o conditions evolved in the Pacific Ocean, and sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over the Indian Ocean were warmer than normal during monsoon 2009. The observed circulation patterns indicate a weaker monsoon in that year over India with weaker than normal convection over the Bay of Bengal and Indian landmass. Skill of the GCMs during hindcast period shows that neither these models simulate the observed interannual variability nor their multi-model ensemble (MME) significantly improves the skill of monsoon rainfall predictions. Except for one model used in this study, the real-time predictions with longer lead (2- and 1-month lead) made for the 2009 monsoon season did not provide any indication of a highly anomalous monsoon. However, with less lead time (zero lead), most of the models as well as the MME had provided predictions of below normal rainfall for that monsoon season. This study indicates that the models could not predict the 2009 drought over India due to the use of less warm SST anomalies over the Pacific in the longer lead runs. Hence, it is proposed that the uncertainties in SST predictions (the lower boundary condition) have to be represented in the model predictions of summer monsoon rainfall over India.     

Factors responsible for the increasing trend of mei-yu season rainfall during 1979–2020 over the western and eastern mei-yu domain

The mei-yu season (June–July) rainfall over the mei-yu monitoring domain (MMD) in the Yangtze–Huaihe Basin has shown an increasing trend in recent decades. This study examines the dominant factors responsible for this increasing trend for the period 1979–2020 based on station-observed rainfall and ERA5 reanalysis datasets from the perspective of changes in atmospheric circulation. Although significantly increasing trends exist in the mei-yu season rainfall over the entire MMD, the magnitude of the trends is slightly larger over the eastern MMD (EMMD) than over the western MMD (WMMD). Quantitative diagnoses demonstrate that the relative contributions of anomalous evaporation and moisture advection to the increasing rainfall trend are different between the EMMD and WMMD. The increasing rainfall trend over the WMMD (EMMD) is attributable to increased evaporation (enhanced vertical moisture advection), which is dependent on an anomalous cyclonic circulation in the middle-lower troposphere over the MMD. Such an anomalous cyclone on the northwestern side of the climatological western North Pacific subtropical high facilitates an increase in moisture divergence above 600 hPa over the EMMD, leading to enhanced vertical moisture advection in conjunction with strengthened moisture convergence at 850 hPa. By contrast, the anomalous cyclone favors increasing local evaporation over the WMMD.摘要近几十年来, 江淮流域梅雨监测区 (MMD) 的梅雨期 (6–7月) 降水呈增加趋势. 本文基于1979–2020年台站观测降水资料和ERA5再分析数据, 从大气环流变异的角度揭示了这种长期增加趋势的主要影响因素. 发现在MMD范围内, 梅雨期降水趋势的增幅东部大于西部. 水汽收支定量诊断表明, 异常的蒸发和水汽平流对MMD西部和东部降水增加趋势的相对贡献是不同的. MMD西部 (东部) 的降水趋势主要归咎于增强的局地蒸发 (增强的垂直水汽平流) , 后者又取决于MMD对流层中, 低层的异常气旋环流. 这种位于气候平均的西太平洋副热带高压西北侧的异常气旋有助于MMD东部600 hPa以上的水汽辐散增加, 伴随加强的850 hPa水汽辐合, 从而导致垂直水汽平流的增强. 相反, 该异常气旋则有利于增强MMD西部的局地蒸发.     

Has the intensity of the interannual variability in summer rainfall over South China remarkably increased?

It is indicated in this paper that there were substantial differences of interannual variability (IIV) in summer rainfall over South China (RSC) among 1960–1977, 1978–1988, and 1989–2010. Notably, both IIV and mean RSC have significantly increased after 1992/1993. Relative to 1978–1988, the percentage increase of standard deviation (SD) of RSC is 230.32 % for 1993–2010. It indicates remarkable increase in IIV of RSC occurred 1993–2010, concurrent with rainfall increase. The results show that the mid-tropospheric meridional gradient of temperature over East Asia weakened in the later period, resulting in an anomalous cyclonic circulation, transporting more tropospheric moisture to South China and an upward motion at the middle and low levels of the troposphere. Meanwhile, IIV in the mid-tropospheric meridional gradient of temperature over East Asia resulted in IIVs both in the anomalous cyclonic circulation and in vertically integrated moisture content over South China. This scenario led to a significant increase in the IIV of summer rainfall over South China. Compared to 1978–1988, a greater increase in the IIV of warming over Mongolia–northeastern China and of excessive spring snow depth over the southeastern Tibetan Plateau were responsible for the increase in the IIV of the mid-tropospheric meridional gradient of the East Asian temperature during 1993–2010. Moreover, another slight increase in the IIV of summer rainfall over South China occurred in 1960–1977 relative to 1978–1988, which partly resulted from the weakening East Asian summer monsoon variability in the late 1970s.     

Calibration of TRMM rainfall climatology over Saudi Arabia during 1998–2009

The short-term rainfall climatology regime over Saudi Arabia is obtained from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data for the period 1998–2009. The TRMM rainfall amounts are calibrated with respect to the rain-gauge data recorded at 29 stations across the country. Day-to-day rainfall comparisons show that the TRMM rainfall trends are very similar to the observed data trends, even if a general overestimation in the satellite products must be highlighted. Besides, especially during the wet season, some of the TRMM algorithm runs tend to underestimate the retrieved rainfalls. The TRMM rainfall data also closely follow the observed annual cycle on a monthly scale. The correlation coefficient for rainfall between the TRMM and the rain-gauge data is about 0.90, with a 99% level of significance on the monthly scale.The spatio-temporal distributions of rainfall over Saudi Arabia are analyzed. Besides the four conventional seasons, this analysis consider the wet (November–April) and dry (June–September) seasons, based on the rainfall amounts recorded. Spring is the highest and winter is the second highest rainfall-occurring season, resulting in large amounts of rainfall during the wet season over most of the country. Regional variations in the rainfall climatology over Saudi Arabia are studied through defining four regions. The false alarm ratio, probability of detection, threat score, and skill score are calculated to evaluate the TRMM performance. The country's average annual rainfall measured by the TRMM is 89.42 mm, whereas the observed data is 82.29 mm. Thus, the rainfall in Saudi Arabia is suggested as being the TRMM value multiplied by 0.93 plus 0.04. After this calibration, the TRMM-measured rainfall is almost 100% of the observed data, thereby confirming that TRMM data may be used in a variety of water-related applications in Saudi Arabia.     

The heterogeneity of Meiyu rainfall over Yangtze–Huaihe River valley and its relationship with oceanic surface heating and intraseasonal variability

Increasing heavy concentrated Meiyu precipitation over the Yangtze–Huaihe river valley (YHRV) during recent years has been previously reported. In fact, the concentrated Meiyu rainfall occurring in a small region or a certain period easily results in floods, thus it is worthy to analyze the heterogeneity of Meiyu rainfall over YHRV. In this study, we use both of precipitation concentration period (PCP) and precipitation concentration degree (PCD) based on vector analysis to identify the heterogeneity of Meiyu rainfall over YHRV. On the climatological mean, the concentrated heavy precipitation occurs in late summer over the Yangtze River Delta, where is usually suffered by floods. The dominant two patterns of PCP and PCD variations are northeast–southwest dipole pattern, homogeneous anomalies and homogeneous variation, north–south dipole pattern, respectively. In addition, the relationship on heterogeneity of Meiyu rainfall with sea surface temperature (SST) and the low level summer intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) are investigated. Two key regions of SST activities are found: Bay of Bengal (BOB) and Equatorial eastern Pacific. From BOB, more abundant water vapor has been brought. On the El Niño-Southern Oscillation variation, it is closely relative with PCD–PC1 during the decaying phase of El Niño, while PCP–PC2 is accompanied with developing phase of La Nina events, suggesting a negative feedback of PCP–PC2 on the Niño3.4 SST, and changes to positive during the later winter. On the ISO activities, the robust regions are located over the high-latitude areas, which are closely related with northeastern cold vortex. The north “cold and dry” air southwardly invaded with the lower-level strong warm air in the rainy area, and easily formed an “upper-wet and lower-dry” unstable layer. Under the trigger of the upward motion, the concentrated heavy rainfall easily occurred over YHRV. In all, the homogeneity variation of the concentrated heavy precipitation over YHRV is closely associated with both of the heating forcing (SST) and dynamical atmospheric forcing (low-level ISO).     

Statistical characteristics,trends, and variability of rainfall in Shanxi province,China, during the period 1957–2019

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Under the background of global warming, an analysis of the trend and variability of rainfall time series on various timescales is very important for...     

Factors controlling January�CApril rainfall over southern India and Sri Lanka

Most of the annual rainfall over India occurs during the Southwest (June?CSeptember) and Northeast (October?CDecember) monsoon periods. In March 2008, however, Southern peninsular India and Sri Lanka received the largest rainfall anomaly on record since 1979, with amplitude comparable to summer-monsoon interannual anomalies. This anomalous rainfall appeared to be modulated at intraseasonal timescale by the Madden Julian Oscillation, and was synchronous with a decaying La Ni?a event in the Pacific Ocean. Was this a coincidence or indicative of a teleconnection pattern? In this paper, we explore factors controlling rainfall over southern India and Sri Lanka between January and April, i.e. outside of the southwest and northeast monsoons. This period accounts for 20% of annual precipitation over Sri Lanka and 10% over the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Interannual variability is strong (about 40% of the January?CApril climatology). Intraseasonal rainfall anomalies over southern India and Sri Lanka are significantly associated with equatorial eastward propagation, characteristic of the Madden Julian Oscillation. At the interannual timescale, we find a clear connection with El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO); with El Ni?os being associated with decreased rainfall (correlation of ?0.46 significant at the 98% level). There is also a significant link with local SST anomalies over the Indian Ocean, and in particular with the inter-hemispheric sea surface temperature (SST) gradient over the Indian Ocean (with colder SST south of the equator being conducive to more rainfall, correlation of 0.55 significant at the 99% level). La Ni?as/cold SSTs south of the equator tend to have a larger impact than El Ni?os. We discuss two possible mechanisms that could explain these statistical relationships: (1) subsidence over southern India remotely forced by Pacific SST anomalies; (2) impact of ENSO-forced regional Indian Ocean SST anomalies on convection. However, the length of the observational record does not allow distinguishing between these two mechanisms in a statistically significant manner.     

Interdecadal variation of the West African summer monsoon during 1979–2010 and associated variability

This paper addresses the interdecadal variation of the West African summer monsoon (WASM) along with its background of atmospheric circulation and possible physical mechanism over the past 32?years (1979–2010). It is indicated that the WASM starts to strengthen from 1998 as the rainfall begins to increase over western West Africa on the whole, which shows a new interdecadal variation. In this interdecadal variation, the strengthened ascending motion corresponding to enhanced divergence (convergence) movement on the upper (lower) troposphere is prone to develop the local circulation of the monsoon. Moreover, the strengthened southwestern (eastern) wind on the lower (upper) level leads to more moisture from the Atlantic and the Gulf of Guinea transported to the West African continent. In addition, the summer subtropical high over the north Atlantic and western West Africa is strong and northward, and the tropical east wind is also strong. Statistically, the weaker (stronger) the spring North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is, the stronger (weaker) the tropical easterly is, and then the WASM is also stronger. But the effect of the NAO on the decadal variation of the WASM is not so significant from the north Atlantic anomaly sensitivity simulation with a single model. This is also an indication that the relationship between the WASM and NAO is complicated in an interdecadal time scale and is needed further study. In terms of sea surface temperature (SST) variation, the tendency is toward warming in the subtropical north Pacific, the south Pacific and north Atlantic. Numerical simulation experiments and data analysis show that the SST variation in the north Pacific plays an important role in the latest interdecadal strengthening of the WASM during the past 32?years, while the influences of the south Pacific and the north Atlantic SST anomalies are not so significant to the associated atmospheric circulation changes.     

Intra-annual variations of teak cellulose ��18O in Kerala, India: implications to the reconstruction of past summer and winter monsoon rains

A seasonal cycle has been observed in the high and coarse resolution intra-annual analyses of oxygen isotopic composition (??¹⁸O) of teak (Tectona grandis) cellulose from southern India, that receives both the south-west (SW) (summer) and the north-east (NE) (winter, more depleted in ¹⁸O) monsoon rains. The seasonal cycle as recorded by teak, with an amplitude between 1 and 3??, shows lower ??¹⁸O values at the early and late growing seasons than at the middle. This pattern is opposite to that found in central Indian teak, nurtured mostly by the SW monsoon rain. A comparison of the observed and modeled intra-annual profiles reveals that the observed pattern of intra-annual ??¹⁸O variation in southern India is explainable only if teak trees had sampled rainfall from both the monsoons. Thus it appears possible to detect years of past excess NE monsoon rains by analyzing the ??¹⁸O of cellulose from the latewood of teak trees growing in Kerala, southern India.     

Observed variability and trends in extreme temperature indices and rice–wheat productivity over two districts of Bihar, India—a case study

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the trends and variability in extreme temperature indices and its impact on rice–wheat productivity over two districts of Bihar, India, which is part of the middle Indo-Gangetic Basin. Mann–Kendall non-parametric test was employed for detection of trend and Sen slope was determined to quantify the magnitude of such trends. We have analyzed 10 extreme temperature indices for monthly and seasonally. The influence of extreme temperature indices on rice–wheat productivity was determined using correlation analysis. As far as Patna is concerned, if the number of cool days during September ≥10, the rice productivity will increase due to the availability of sufficient duration to fill up the grain. However, higher warm days during all the months except June will affect the productivity. A significant negative correlation was noticed between maximum value of minimum temperature during September and rice productivity. Highly significant positive correlation was noticed between number of cool days during September with rice productivity while it was highly significant negative correlation in the case of number of warm days during the same month. As far as Samastipur is concerned, a negative correlation was noticed between wheat productivity and maximum value of maximum temperature (TXx) during February, but not statistically significant. The higher temperature may affect the kernel weight and thereby yield. It is seen that a critical value of TXx ≥29.2 °C will be harmful to wheat crop during February. A significant positive correlation of number of cool nights with wheat productivity also supports the above relationship. The critical values of extreme temperature indices during rice and wheat growing months provide an indicator to assess the vulnerability of rice–wheat productivity to temperature for Patna and Samastipur districts and there is a need to prepare an adaptive strategy and also develop thermo-insensitive rice–wheat high yielding varieties suitable for this region to sustain rice–wheat productivity under projected climate change situation.     

Monsoon rainfall extreme indices and tendencies from 1954–2003 in Kerala,India

Climate change has the potential ability to alter the occurrence and severity of extreme events. Though predicting changes of such extreme events is difficult, understanding them is important to determine the impacts of climate change in various sectors. This paper presents the change in rainfall extremes in the monsoon season in south-west Indian peninsula. Daily rainfall data were analysed for the entire Kerala state in India to determine if the extreme rainfall had changed over the 50-year period. Several indices were derived from the data to identify the extreme rainfalls. The trends of all the extreme indices were assessed by parametric ordinary least square regression technique, which were tested for significance at 95% level. Results showed significant decrease in monsoon rainfall extremes in Kerala that would affect the tendency of change in seasonal total rainfall. This study provides a comprehensive knowledge on extreme monsoon precipitation in Kerala, which could also be employed to study changing climate at local scale in other regions.     

How effective is the new generation of GPM satellite precipitation in characterizing the rainfall variability over Malaysia?

We investigated the potential of the new generation of satellite precipitation product from the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) to characterize the rainfall in Malaysia. Most satellite precipitation products have limited ability to precisely characterize the high dynamic rainfall variation that occurred at both time and scale in this humid tropical region due to the coarse grid size to meet the physical condition of the smaller land size, sub-continent and islands. Prior to the status quo, an improved satellite precipitation was required to accurately measure the rainfall and its distribution. Subsequently, the newly released of GPM precipitation product at half-hourly and 0.1° resolution served an opportunity to anticipate the aforementioned conflict. Nevertheless, related evidence was not found and therefore, this study made an initiative to fill the gap. A total of 843 rain gauges over east (Borneo) and west Malaysia (Peninsular) were used to evaluate the rainfall the GPM rainfall data. The assessment covered all critical rainy seasons which associated with Asian Monsoon including northeast (Nov. - Feb.), southwest (May - Aug.) and their subsequent inter-monsoon period (Mar. - Apr. & Sep. - Oct.). The ability of GPM to provide quantitative rainfall estimates and qualitative spatial rainfall patterns were analysed. Our results showed that the GPM had good capacity to depict the spatial rainfall patterns in less heterogeneous rainfall patterns (Spearman’s correlation, 0.591 to 0.891) compared to the clustered one (r = 0.368 to 0.721). Rainfall intensity and spatial heterogeneity that is largely driven by seasonal monsoon has significant influence on GPM ability to resolve local rainfall patterns. In quantitative rainfall estimation, large errors can be primarily associated with the rainfall intensity increment. 77% of the error variation can be explained through rainfall intensity particularly the high intensity (> 35 mm d^-1). A strong relationship between GPM rainfall and error was found from heavy (~35 mm d^-1) to violent rain (160 mm d^-1). The output of this study provides reference regarding the performance of GPM data for respective hydrology studies in this region.