A Statistical Description of Intense Rainfall

This paper presents some statistics from the rainfall data collected on a rain gauge network during the period from June 1 to November 30, 1967. The network consists of 96 gauges spaced approximately 1.3 km apart on a rectangular grid centered near Crawford Hill, Holmdel, New Jersey. The design of the rain gauges and the equipment for recording data from the network are described elsewhere. 1,2 In communications, interest in rain-rate data arises from the relationship of attenuation of radio signals in the 10 to 30 GHz frequency range to the number and size of raindrops present in the transmission path. The quantity of water that the signal penetrates is directly related to the average rain rate on the path. Thus a major direction of our analysis was toward a statistical description of the behavior of rain rates at a point in space, the relationship of two rain rates separated in space or in time, and the relationship of average rain rates on pairs of paths in various configurations. Knowledge about these relationships, particularly for rain rates greater than 50 mm per hour, 1789