Estimating precipitation volume distributions using data from the spatially dense cocorahs network

A novel approach to modeling the distribution of precipitation volume is developed using a combination of traditional and new techniques in spatial statistics. Data are taken from the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) network; this network of trained volunteers provides daily precipitation depth measurements across the country. Data for three regions in Colorado were selected due to its spatial density. Combined variogram clouds were calculated for each region, and variograms were fitted to this data using weighted least squares. Precipitation depths were estimated using ordinary Kriging, and bilinear interpolation was used to approximate daily precipitation volumes. Distributions were fitted to the seasonal volume estimates using maximum likelihood, and fit comparisons were done using negative log-likelihood and the Anderson-Darling test.