Major storm systems passing over the 21.4 km² Goodwin Creek research watershed in northern Mississippi are analyzed to evaluate the potential use of high resolution observations made by local-scale Doppler radar to estimate rainfall accumulation relevant for catchment hydrology. Issues of space-time resolution and variability of rainfall are discussed by means of a direct comparison of the X-Band radar observations to those made by a regional-scale NEXRAD WSR-88D S-Band radar, and detailed surface rainfall measurements. Instrumentation of the Goodwin Creek catchment includes approximately 45 rain gauges of varying design (above ground and buried), a raindrop disdrometer, and three anemometers mounted at different heights to observe the wind profile. The presentation will highlight the difficulties involved in obtaining accurate rainfall measurements from point and remote-sensing sources. A particular challenge poses the problem of potentially very severe attenuation for X-band radar observations in extreme rainfall.