Semper et al. (2026) How reporting cadence shapes hourly precipitation extremes

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Hydrology
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-10-01
• Authors: Marc Semper, Manuel Curado, José F. Vicent, Leandro Tortosa
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.136555

Research Groups

• Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Alicante, Spain
• AVAMET stations in eastern Spain, Iberian Peninsula
• DWD 1-min stations (external replication)

Short Summary

This study investigates how reporting cadence affects hourly precipitation extremes by synthetically coarsening high-frequency records to different reporting schedules. The results show that temporal support, clock alignment, aggregation implementation, and rainfall structure all contribute to differences between hourly station products.

Objective

• Assess sampling-induced changes in hourly precipitation extremes through a fixed controlled-coarsening protocol.
• Determine the effect of reporting cadence on extreme diagnostics, including interval-rate maximum and accumulation.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Eastern Spain, Iberian Peninsula (AVAMET stations) and Germany (DWD 1-min stations for external replication).
• Temporal Scale: Three years (2023–2025, UTC) of 5-minute observations from AVAMET stations, with synthetic coarsening to 15-, 30-, and 60-minute reporting.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: None mentioned.
• Data sources: AVAMET station records (5-minute observations), DWD 1-min station records (external replication).

Main Results

• The hourly interval-rate maximum (Pint,max) decreases with coarser reporting cadence, with median relative differences reaching −56.2% at 30-minute reporting and −69.6% at 60-minute reporting.
• Strict hour-identity agreement for the most extreme hour degrades sharply once ∆≥30 minutes.
• Exceedance counts at 10 and 20 mm h−1 decrease strongly under reporting coarsening.

Contributions

• The study provides a unified, mass-conserving separation of temporal support, clock alignment, aggregation implementation, and rainfall structure effects on hourly precipitation extremes.
• The results highlight the importance of accounting for reporting cadence when comparing hourly station products.

Funding

• No funding information is provided in the text.

Citation

@article{Semper2026How,
  author = {Semper, Marc and Curado, Manuel and Vicent, José F. and Tortosa, Leandro},
  title = {How reporting cadence shapes hourly precipitation extremes},
  journal = {Journal of Hydrology},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.136555},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.136555}
}