Spatial and temporal characteristics of precipitation events that might occur during a short range forecast period must be represented at an appropriate level of detail in ensemble precipitation forecasts to produce accurate probabilistic hydrologic forecasts. A wide range of statistics are being considered to characterize 6-hour and 24-hour precipitation events. Some of these statistics are used in alternative parameter estimation techniques to estimate parameters for alternative Ensemble Precipitation Processor (EPP) components. All of the statistics are used to test if observed characteristics of precipitation can be represented. Results of this analysis will be presented