A Brief Evaluation of Precipitation from the North American Regional Reanalysis

Abstract

Several aspects of the precipitation climatology from the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) are analyzed and compared with two other reanalyses and one set of gridded observations over a domain encompassing the United States. The spatial distribution, diurnal cycle, and annual cycle of precipitation are explored to establish the reliability of the reanalyses and to judge their usefulness. While the NARR provides a much improved representation of precipitation over that of the other reanalyses examined, some inaccuracies are found and have been highlighted as a warning to potential users of the data.