Evaluation of Satellite-Based Estimates of Precipitation In the Yucatan Region During Hurricane Wilma

One of the most potent hurricanes in 2005, Hurricane Wilma was at a Category 4 stage when it made landfall on 21 October on the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula, crossing over Cozumel and stalling between 21-22 October, resulting in a sustained period of heavy rain and flooding. Preliminary reports of rainfall totals from the area exceeded 1-m, especially for the areas near Isla Mujeres in Quintana Roo. In this presentation, we analyze and compare several different muti-satellite based precipitation estimates during the passage of Wilma across the Yucatan peninsula. The different multi-satellite estimates represent a collection of methods to combine and blend rainfall datasets generated from intermittent, infrequent overpasses of passive microwave (PMW) imagers onboard low Earth orbiting satellites, with the rapid-refresh capabilities of geostationary visible/infrared (VIS/IR) imagers. Since the rainfall event occurred over a brief period (2 days), this case represents an opportunity to examine the performance of these precipitation estimation schemes over short (e.g., 1-3 hour) time scales. Comparisons are made with hourly reports from available raingauge stations and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR) estimates, to examine storm totals and individual 3-hour accumulations during the hurricane passage.