Radar data and climatological statistics associated with warm season precipitation episodes over the continental U.S.

This Technical Note supplements the Carbone et al. (2001) study, for which meridionally averaged composites of national radar reflectivity were used to compile seasonal statistics on the zonal span, phase speed, duration and recurrence frequency of temporally and spatially coherent rainfall episodes. The remainder of the document consists of three text sections, a table section, plus four Appendices. The following section describes the principal data set used in the Carbone et al. (2001) study. The next section details the process of constructing longitude-time and latitude-time sections from the radar reflectivity data. The steps taken to analyze the longitude-time sections (Hovmoller diagrams) are found in the final section. The Appendices contain Hovmoller diagrams produced for the years 1996 through 2000 as well as related analyses for seasonal, monthly, and daily periods.