Using NEXRAD Precipitation Data for Enriching Hydrological and Hydrodynamic Models in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Scarcity of precipitation data is common when modeling and simulating watershed hydrology. Current availability of ground‐based radar stations provides estimations of precipitation in ways that were inexistent before. However, the delivering method for radar‐estimated precipitation (raster layers of precipitation values per unit time) is not the best in the context of hydrological modeling. Usually, hydrological models require precipitation time‐series organized according to a previous delineation of the watershed. This paper presents a methodology for generating and using NEXRAD precipitation data for hydrological simulation. NEXRAD or Nexrad (Next‐Generation Radar) is a network of 158 high‐resolution Doppler weather radars operated by the National Weather Service, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the United States Department of Commerce. In this research, more than 70000 NEXRAD precipitation data files in XMRGS format and HRAP coordinates (for the period 1997–2005) were used to generate precipitation time series to be used by hydrological and hydrodynamic models for the Mobile (Alabama, USA) watershed and estuary. Results and comparison with measured data are presented.