Probable Maximum Precipitation in Iceland – Station Values –

Abstract

The meteorological stations in Iceland are rather few compared to the size of the country, and their service time is short compared to other developed countries. Investigations of individual 24-hour station PMP values computed by the Hershfield and NERC methods show trends that are important for the application of PMP values in engineering design. The results fall into two series, one with high PMP values and the other with lower values. The low values originate from station groups situated in areas with mildly sloping terrain and here the results compare fully with what should be expected from experience from other countries. The other series shows results that do not compare as well with previously published results. Their general characteristics is that PMP values calculated hy the Hershfield method are of the order 80% higher than the corresponding results obtained by the NERC method. The results of this high series do not check against results obtained from meteorological models. It is noteworthy, that all the stations of the low series belong to station groups where the terrain is gently sloping, i.e. average terrain slopes less than 1.4%, while in the high series all the stations belong to station groups where the terrain slopes steeply from a highland plateau down to sea level. It is concluded that the generalized estimates of PMP values needed in engineering design could be obtained.