Patterns in Indices of Daily and Seasonal Rainfall Extremes: Southwest Florida Gulf Coastal Zone

Margaret Gitau

doi:10.3390/cli6040083

Abstract

Extreme events have the most adverse impacts on society and infrastructure, and present the greatest challenges with respect to impacts. Information on the status and trends of these events is, thus, important for system design, management, and policy decision-making. In this study, variations in daily and seasonal rainfall extremes were explored with a focus on the southwest Florida Gulf coastal zone for the period 1950–2016. Rainfall occurring on very wet days accounted for about 50% of the seasonal rainfall in the area (regardless of the season), while about 25% of the seasonal rainfall came from extremely wet days except in the period between October and December for which this latter value was about 40%. No significant changes were seen in the maximum one-day rainfall at any of the stations regardless of the time scale. However, there was a significant increase in the number of wet days in the rainy season at Myakka River (p = 0.0062) and Naples (p = 0.0027) and during October–December at Myakka River (p = 0.0204). These two stations also experienced significant increases in the number of wet days in a year. Significant increases in the contribution to rainy season rainfall from very wet days (rainfall > 25.4 mm, 1 in) were seen at Arcadia (p = 0.0055). Regional results point to an increasingly wetter climate with increasing contributions from extreme events in some areas, both of which have implications for design and management decision making.

Highlights

Coastal regions are ecologically important with respect to supporting fisheries and wildlife and providing water purification
Increases were seen in the number of wet days and contributions from very wet days during the rainy season, suggesting an increasingly wetter season with increased contributions of extreme events during the season, both of which have implications for design and management decision-making
Variations in extreme indices for daily and seasonal rainfall were examined with a focus on the southwest Florida Gulf coastal zone

Summary

Introduction

Coastal regions are ecologically important with respect to supporting fisheries and wildlife and providing water purification. Coastal regions protect inland areas from storm surges in addition to providing a number of intangible benefits [1,2,3]. Many of these areas are of cultural and historical significance. In the U.S, for example, coastal regions (which include the U.S Great Lakes) contributed more than $352 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2014; in 2016, $1.5 trillion worth of cargo was transported in U.S and international waters [4]

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Conclusion