Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by mrpg on Saturday November 17 2018, @05:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the rain-spelled-backwards-is-near dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

In just 12 days, the world gets half of its annual rainfall

Some days are dry, and others are wet. And some are really wet. A new study reveals that any particular place on the globe gets half its annual rainfall—on average—in just 12 days.

For their analysis, the researchers looked at daily rainfall data gathered at 185 sites worldwide from 1999 through 2014. That 16-year period was long enough to capture year-to-year variations in rainfall caused by El Niño and other short-term climate cycles. They also focused on weather stations located within 50° of the equator, which allowed them to use satellite data both to validate their data and to extrapolate their findings to broader regions.

On average, the wettest day at each site received a full month's worth of rain. Also, half of a site's annual precipitation falls over the course of just 12 days, the researchers report this month in Geophysical Research Letters. Which specific days are the wettest varies from place to place and season to season, of course, but the pattern holds worldwide.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @02:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @02:00AM (#763307)

    ha! that's interesting.
    however there's also something called "dew point" which i think means where dew form (if it doesnt it should be renamed).
    one could understand it as "rain" but as just acuring a few minimeters above the grass blade (or whatnot).
    how much does dew contribute to moisture content in the top soil?
    obviously water is required for stuff to grow and unlike the pinnacle of gods creation work, this stuff is on a mission to improve its chances of survival ... or in other words, plants have a shading effect which (leeeaaaappp here) changes the climate for ... more moisture.
    here we could go out on a mystical magical limb, mix some quantum effect into the pot and compare some plants to certain wave-lengths of light and how having more light but at the wrong wave-length will not trigger the electron. so it seems that not all plants are equally suited to capture (and maybe trigger) moisture and maybe also ... the situation has now changed ; )