Schumacher (2026) Water year precipitation totals from: Comparison of gridded precipitation datasets used in climate and drought monitoring in the contiguous United States

Identification

• Journal: DRYAD
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-07
• Authors: Russ S. Schumacher
• DOI: 10.5061/dryad.dz08kpsbp

Research Groups

• Colorado State University

Short Summary

This dataset compares water-year total precipitation from various gridded datasets used in climate and drought monitoring in the contiguous United States for water years 2019-2024.

Objective

• Compare the accuracy of different gridded precipitation datasets (Stage IV, CCPA, nClimGrid-daily, WLDAS) with gauge observations in the contiguous US.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Continental scale (contiguous United States)
• Temporal Scale: Water years 2019-2024

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Stage IV, CCPA, nClimGrid-daily, WLDAS
• Data sources: Gauge observations from Applied Climate Information System (ACIS), gridded datasets from various sources (public domain)

Main Results

• Comparison of water-year total precipitation from different gridded datasets with gauge observations shows varying degrees of agreement.
• Stage IV and CCPA show good agreement with gauge observations, while nClimGrid-daily and WLDAS have larger discrepancies.

Contributions

• This study provides a comprehensive comparison of gridded precipitation datasets used in climate and drought monitoring in the contiguous US.
• The results highlight the importance of selecting the most accurate dataset for specific applications.

Funding

• National Science Foundation (Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences) - Award #2337380
• National Institute of Food and Agriculture - Award #COL00703C

Citation

@article{Schumacher2026Water,
  author = {Schumacher, Russ S.},
  title = {Water year precipitation totals from: Comparison of gridded precipitation datasets used in climate and drought monitoring in the contiguous United States},
  journal = {DRYAD},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.5061/dryad.dz08kpsbp},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dz08kpsbp}
}