Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts

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This page contains quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF) from the NCEP Weather Prediction Center (WPC), the National Blend of Models (NBM), the NCEP Global Forecast System (GFS), and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for various accumulation periods at lead times up to ten days. Number keys will change the model (1-4 for left image, 7-0 for right image), up/down arrow keys change accumulation period, and left/right arrow keys will adjust lead time. [W] will cycle 24-hour QPF for days 1-7 from the WPC. In the event that model initialization times do not match between the left and right image, the lead time of the right image will be automatically adjusted so that the valid period of each image match.

Drought status is often represented by maps of how much precipitation has fallen in the year to date, or how that amount differs from normal amounts of precipitation to date. A somewhat different viewpoint on the development of drought considers how much precipitation has fallen (or not) and how much is likely to fall in coming months, based on climatology. Click the image below to see maps of this and previous years’ drought development that explicitly takes both of these aspects into account.