Spatial Precipitation Assessment with Elevation by Using Point Cumulative Semivariogram Technique

Depiction of precipitation change by elevation in an areaindicates the possibilities of orographic rainfall occurrencesin the mountainous regions. In general, precipitation increaseswith elevation but sometimes inverse cases occur locally due toorographic and meteorological features of the area. Inpractice, prior to any quantitative modeling, qualitativeassessments and interpretations help to have sound foundationsin search for a suitable model. In this article, standardizedpoint cumulative semivariogram (SPCSV) methodology is employedfor identification of the precipitation-elevationrelationship. According to relative positions of theprecipitation and elevation SPCSVs four different precipitationcategories are suggested. The application of the methodologyproposed is presented for the precipitation records from YuccaMountain, Nevada, U.S.A. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2000