TY  - JOUR
A1  - Regmi, Shakil
A1  - Bookhagen, Bodo
T1  - The spatial pattern of extreme precipitation from 40 years of gauge data in the central Himalaya
JF  - Weather and climate extremes
N2  - The topography of the Himalaya exerts a substantial control on the spatial distribution of monsoonal rainfall, which is a vital water source for the regional economy and population. But the occurrence of short-lived and high-intensity precipitation results in socio-economic losses. This study relies on 40 years of daily data from 204 ground stations in Nepal to derive extreme precipitation thresholds, amounts, and days at the 95th percentile. We additionally determine the precipitation magnitude-frequency relation. We observe that extreme precipitation amounts follow an almost uniform band parallel to topographic contour lines in the southern Himalaya mountains in central and eastern Nepal but not in western Nepal. The relationship of extreme precipitation indices with topographic relief shows that extreme precipitation thresholds decrease with increasing elevation, but extreme precipitation days increase in higher elevation areas. Furthermore, stations above 1 km elevation exhibit a power-law relation in the rainfall magnitude-frequency framework. Stations at higher elevations generally have lower values of power-law exponents than low elevation areas. This suggests a fundamentally different behaviour of the rainfall distribution and an increased occurrence of extreme rainfall storms in the high elevation areas of Nepal.
KW  - Himalaya
KW  - Nepal
KW  - Indian summer monsoon
KW  - Precipitation
KW  - Extreme
KW  - precipitation
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2022.100470
SN  - 2212-0947
VL  - 37
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -