What Rainfall Return Frequency?
- 1 United States Military Academy, West Point, USA
- 2 United States Military Academy, West Point, USA
- 3 California State University, Fullerton, USA
- 4 Hromadka and Associates, Rancho Santa Margarita, USA
- 5 Hromadka and Associates, Rancho Santa Margarita, USA
- 6 Hromadka and Associates, Rancho Santa Margarita, USA
Abstract
In this paper, a comparison is made of available rainfall data in a localized study area of Los Angeles County, Califor nia. This particular area has also been studied by the State of California Department of Water Resources (DWR), the National Weather Service (NWS) National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Los An geles County (LAC) Department of Public Works. All three of these cited governmental agencies independently ana lyzed the rainfall data to identify rainfall trends for the study area, and then prepared statistical analyses in order to de velop estimates of return frequencies for various peak durations of rainfall, among other items of interest to hydrologists. Additionally, these three agencies have available two different analyses of the available data, resulting in updates to their respective published works. Consequently, six different statistical analyses are available for comparison and as sessment. In this paper, an examination is made of these six statistical studies and some of the differences between the various analyses are identified and explained.
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