A new procedure for the determination and classification of rainfall rate climatic zones

The requisites for defining climatic regions of characteristic rainfall rate behaviour is examined. It is pointed out that a suitable classification scheme must be based on rainfall rate data themselves and not on other meteorological or geographic considerations. It is further argued that two or more independent parameters must be employed to characterize the rainfall climate, as they must for the point rainfall-rate distributions themselves. Using the parameters of the power law approximations to 47 rain-rate distributions, a suitable climatic map is derived for Canada. The implications for global extension are examined.