January was UK's wettest winter month in almost 250 years

Amanda LewanClimate

Originally Published by ESA- The 2014 World Wetlands Day highlights the need for wetlands and the agriculture sector to work together. ESA’s GlobWetland II project assists Mediterranean countries in the sustainable use of these areas and demonstrates the evolution of wetlands and agricultural patterns over time.

Average Recurrence Interval of Extreme Rainfall in Real-time

ParzybokArticles, Disasters, Extreme Weather Theme, Original

Image of Average Recurrence Interval (years) of the maximum rainfall in a 24-hour period during the period February 17-24 2004 storm across the North Island of New Zealand (Natural Hazards Centre, 2004).

Cropped image of Average Recurrence Interval (years) of the maximum rainfall in a 24-hour period during the period February 17-24 2004 storm across the North Island of New Zealand (Natural Hazards Centre, 2004).Knowing how much rainfall fell at a particular location during a certain amount of time is useful, but expressing the rarity of rainfall in terms of a “return period” provides an objective and useful perspective of the rainfall. Average recurrence interval (ARI) maps of rainfall provide information that is analogous to the 100-year flood, but for rainfall instead.