Shows the hourly precipitation rate at 15 minute intervals estimated by the OPERA radar rainfall network for the previous ~48 hours and the predicted precipitation for the next 6 hours at 2 km spatial resolution. The product is updated every 15 minutes, when the layer is selected the most recently generated data are shown.

The product is shown as an animation (Figure 1) which allows users to cycle through the previous and predicted precipitation time series. The length of previous precipitation data which are shown depends on the time of day when the product is generated, but it ranges between showing the previous 24 to 48 hours of precipitation. The previous precipitation data are sourced from the Quantitative Precipitation Estimates (QPE) derived from the OPERA rainfall radar observations of backscatter which have been adjusted using a rain gauge correction factor. Forecasted precipitation up to 6 hours lead time are generated using Lagrangian extrapolation of the observations.

When observed precipitation is being displayed the animation slider will be shaded white (Figure 1a), when forecasted precipitation is being displayed the animation slider is shaded in red (Figure 1b).

a)

QPE (observed) ERICHA precipitation - shown by the white shading of the time slider

b)

Nowcasted ERICHA precipitation - as shown by the red shading of the time slider