Spatial Variation of Precipitation over the Canadian Prairies

Abstract

Previous analyses of precipitation trends over the Canadian prairies have shown that the trends through the years have differed for different valleys. This result prompted an analysis of precipitation to discover further information on the spatial variations. Use was made of the coefficient of correlation. The results showed, as expected, that the correlation decreased rapidly with distance. It has also shown that the rate of decrease varied with the direction from station to station. Both the rate of decrease with distance and the direction of the least rapid decrease varied from month to month for the months, April to September, examined in the study. The results can be interpreted to show the mean direction of the storm tracks over the prairies.