Statistical Tests for Extreme Precipitation Volumes

Abstract

The analysis of the real observations of precipitation based on the novel statistical approach using the negative binomial distribution as a model for describing the random duration of a wet period is considered and discussed. The study shows that this distribution fits very well to the real observations and generalized standard methods used in meteorology to detect an extreme volume of precipitation. It also provides a theoretical base for the determination of asymptotic approximations to the distributions of the maximum daily precipitation volume within a wet period, as well as the total precipitation volume over a wet period. The paper demonstrates that the relation of the unique precipitation volume, having the gamma distribution, divided by the total precipitation volume taken over the wet period is given by the Snedecor−Fisher or beta distributions. It allows us to construct statistical tests to determine the extreme precipitations. Within this approach, it is possible to introduce the notions of relatively and absolutely extreme precipitation volumes. An alternative method to determine an extreme daily precipitation volume based on a certain quantile of the tempered Snedecor−Fisher distribution is also suggested. The results of the application of these methods to real data are presented.

Keywords

• wet periods
• total precipitation volume
• asymptotic approximation
• extreme order statistics
• random sample size
• testing statistical hypotheses