SPI

The Standardized Precipitation Index is an indicator of extreme rainfall events, whether they are drought or excess rainfall.

The SPI map displays the standard rainfall index of the most recent season of rainfall (using 1991 to the latest complete year as base period). The default SPI shown is the 3-month SPI but the length of the SPI period can be changed in the Control Bar (typically from 1 to 12 months).

The SPI (McKee 1993) is the number of standard deviations that observed cumulative rainfall deviates from the climatological average. To compute the index, a long-term time series of rainfall accumulations over months are used to estimate an appropriate probability density function. The analyses shown here are based on the Pearson Type III distribution (i.e., 3-parameter gamma) as suggested by Guttman (1999). The associated cumulative probability distribution is then estimated and subsequently transformed to a normal distribution. The result is the SPI, which can be interpreted as a probability using the standard normal distribution (i.e., users can expect the SPI be within one standard deviation about 68% of the time, two standard deviations about 95% of the time, etc.) The analyses shown here utilize the FORTRAN code made available by Guttman (1999).

In seasons when it rains too little, the gamma distribution can not fit and a dry mask is applied.

Clicking on the map will pop-up a local time series at the 0.0375˚ gridbox clicked. Users can also choose to spatially average the SPI over Districts, Regions or Countries, by clicking on the map or picking an administrative name in the drop-down list, once having chosen which level of administration. Users can also focus the time series on a small time period by using the menu in the Control Bar.

Note that the time series bars are 1 month wide regardless of the SPI length chosen to ease readability. The SPI for a given season is drawn for the last month of that season. E.g. if the SPI length is 4 months, the Sep-Dec 2016 SPI is drawn in drawn on Dec 2016.

                  
Color Scale
SPI Values
Category

                        

                                    
                                 
= 2.00
                                 
Extremely Wet
                              
                              

                                 

                                    

                                    
                                 
= 1.50 to 1.99
                                 
Severly Wet
                              
                              

                                 

                                    

                                    
                                 
= 1.00 to 1.49
                                 
Moderately Wet
                              
                              

                                 

                                    

                                    
                                 
= -0.99 to 0.99
                                 
Near Normal
                              
                              

                                 

                                    

                                    
                                 
= -1.00 to -1.49
                                 
Moderately Dry
                              
                              

                                 

                                    

                                    
                                 
= -1.50 to -1.99
                                 
Severly Dry
                              
                              

                                 

                                    

                                    
                                 
= -2.00
                                 
Severly Dry
                              
                           

Dataset Documentation

Reconstructed rainfall over land areas on a 0.0375 x 0.0375 lat/lon grid (about 4km). The rainfall times series (1991 to present) were created by combining quality-controlled observations from stations with satellite rainfall estimates.

Instructions

Helpdesk

Contactdccmsmaproom.malawi@gmail.com with any technical questions or problems with this Map Room.