MEAN AREAL PRECIPITATION FOR DAILY HYDROLOGIC MODELING IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS1

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Abstract
A procedure using detrended kriging has been developed to calculate daily values of mean areal precipitation (MAP) for input to hydrologic models. The important features of this procedure that overcome weaknesses in existing MAP procedures are: (1) specific precipitation‐elevation relationships are determined for each time period as opposed to using relationships based on climatological averages, (2) spatial variability is incorporated by estimating precipitation for each grid cell over a watershed, (3) the spatial correlation structure of precipitation is explicitly modeled, and (4) station weights for precipitation estimates are determined objectively and optimally. Detailed cross‐validation testing of the procedure was done for the Reynolds Creek research watershed in southwestern Idaho. The procedure is suitable for use in operational streamflow forecasting.