Dr. Rob Carver's WunderBlog

Last Updated: 9:51 AM GMT on November 07, 2009 — Last Comment: 1:52 AM GMT on October 16, 2009

	Ida, Nicaragua, and Rain

Posted by: rcarver, 9:51 AM GMT on November 07, 2009

Hi everybody,

When Ida made landfall along the Nicaraguan coast, the main threat mentioned in NHC's discussions was flooding due to excessive rain. Now that Ida is back over the ocean again, it's worth reviewing how much rain did fall. Right now, all that is easily accessible on the internet are satellite-derived precipitation estimates. CMORPH is one such estimate, produced at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. This estimates uses multiple satellite datasets to estimate precipitation on a 0.25x0.25 deg grid across the globe. Here is the estimated precipitation over Central America for November 5, 2006:

Fig. 1 CMORPH estimated precipitation in mm for November 5, 2009.

In US units, the largest daily estimate was > 6.5 inches with a wide swath of 3+ inches of estimated precipitation. However, to put this in perspective, the estimates of total precipitation associated with Hurricane Mitch are 50-75 inches total.

It will be interesting to watch Ida's progress this weekend as it makes it's way northward.

Rob

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