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Post by arcleo on Mar 18, 2024 14:52:24 GMT -5
We talk about temperature variability a lot. But precipitation variability, while it's on a longer term basis than day to day, tends to get overlooked in my opinion.
An example is the climate here, which has very high annual variability in how much rain each winter gets. The wettest rain season (August to July) was 1968-69 with 1385 mm and the driest was 1906-07 with 26 mm. Same with month to month variability; there are plenty of winter months with zero or near zero rain recorded, but January 1969 recorded 626 mm and >200 mm is a pretty common occurrence.
I'm still not entirely sure why this is the case. El Nino tends to produce slightly above average rain like 2023-24 but La Nina tends to have very inconsistent effects. The very rainy 2022-23 winter during La Nina was due to the normal Eastern Pacific high pressure being further west than usual and allowing the jet stream to dip south.
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Post by MET on Mar 18, 2024 14:54:34 GMT -5
I prefer evenly distributed precipitation throughout the year with minimal to moderate variability - in combination with subtropical temperatures, to keep the ecosystems thriving and the flora verdant year round.
In my dream climate for example, most months get about 100-150mm of rain on average, but dry months might sometimes get below 50mm and wet months sometimes above 300mm. These extremes are rather rare, however.
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Post by tompas on Mar 18, 2024 15:00:40 GMT -5
High variations, I would say, make things a little more interesting because of the unpredictability.
Although I like it when I get a dry summer here.
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Post by MET on Mar 18, 2024 15:10:47 GMT -5
I prefer evenly distributed precipitation throughout the year with minimal to moderate variability - in combination with subtropical temperatures, to keep the ecosystems thriving and the flora verdant year round. In my dream climate for example, most months get about 100-150mm of rain on average, but dry months might sometimes get below 50mm and wet months sometimes above 300mm. These extremes are rather rare, however. To be specific, my dream climate averages 121mm per month, from 90mm in the driest to 180mm in the wettest; with a standard deviation of 70.6mm. |
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Post by Ariete on Mar 18, 2024 15:28:23 GMT -5
I just tweaked the precipitation of my dream climates, and the results are:
Spring: 164 mm (21% of total)
Summer: 220 mm (28% of total)
Autumn: 250 mm (31% of total)
Winter: 167 mm (21% of total)
So relatively even by season, though month-to-month differences might be big. Summer precipitation is mainly thanks to hightened thunderstorm activity, while the latter half of autumn is marked by wet fronts and windstorms.
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Post by Steelernation on Mar 18, 2024 15:32:29 GMT -5
Not a ton although more in winter than summer. I don’t want very dry summer months so year-year variability in spring and summer should be relatively low. In winter though some very wet and some very dry months would be interesting although I still don’t like how all or nothing precipitation is in say California.
However, with in a year I want high variability, even precipitation all year like Rochester is boring. In my dream climate precipitation in May is about 10 times that of September.
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Post by greysrigging on Mar 18, 2024 17:31:08 GMT -5
Australia continent wide has extreme variabilty re rainfall monthly, seasonally and annually.... hence the saying 'land of droughts and flooding rains'. Even a tropical North Queensland city like Townsville can vary significantly  Alice Springs in Central AU also variable  Normally arid Western Australian Pilbara coastal towns like Whim Creek are subject to the odd cyclonic downpours....    |
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Post by desiccatedi85 on Mar 18, 2024 17:34:45 GMT -5
I like high seasonal variation in rainfall (rainy winters and dry summers). That being said, I don't want annual or monthly rainfall amounts to differ too much from what I consider ideal. For example, if I want a month to average 5" of rain, I'd like it to get between 3" and 9" of rain pretty consistently, rather than having many months of 1" but then a huge 30" month one year.
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Post by arcleo on Mar 18, 2024 22:46:57 GMT -5
I like high seasonal variation in rainfall (rainy winters and dry summers). That being said, I don't want annual or monthly rainfall amounts to differ too much from what I consider ideal. For example, if I want a month to average 5" of rain, I'd like it to get between 3" and 9" of rain pretty consistently, rather than having many months of 1" but then a huge 30" month one year. That would be consistent precipitation, sorry if my first post wasn't clear |
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Post by arcleo on Mar 18, 2024 23:03:14 GMT -5
Thinking about it a bit, I feel like I want precip variability to be moderate for the most part. Enough to have distinctly wet and dry months for the interest factor, but mostly safe from droughts and heavy flooding. Like maybe my dream climate with ~1200 mm annually and no dry season gets 600 mm on the driest recorded year and 2000 mm on the wettest. And for a single month zero precip or over 4x the average would be possible in extreme circumstances.
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Post by CRISPR on Mar 19, 2024 14:34:39 GMT -5
Moderately variability from year-to-year and during a year: enough for some variation, but not too much to risk natural disaster and decreased crop yields
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Post by massiveshibe on Mar 20, 2024 9:18:43 GMT -5
Not a lot of variation year to year but significant variation month to month, with summers getting much more precipitation than winters.
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Post by srfoskey on Mar 20, 2024 10:54:38 GMT -5
I would like moderate variation from month to month and year to year. Since every month in my dream climate averages at least 2.5" (7.3 cm) of precipitation, a dry month here and there won't kill the vegetation, and a wet month of 8-10" (20-25 cm) won't be too crazy either.
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