Relationships between ENSO and Daily Precipitation in the United States

A few aspects of the annual cycle of daily precipitation are examined for selected cities in the conterminous United States. In each case the statistics are based on daily precipitation for 1948-1996. Statistics include

(I) the annual cycle of the frequency of >1", >2" and >3" precipitation accumulations

(II) the annual cycle of mean precipitation amounts over 5 days.

The results are based on gridded data, which implies that the selected sites are the gridpoints nearest the cities above. Comparisons of station data and grid point data reveal only minor differences for the quantities shown. Figs. 48-49 show a sample of (I)-(II) above for the Seattle region during JFM.