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Have you ever seen the rain? Observing a record convective rainfall with national and local monitoring networks and opportunistic sensors

Petersson Wårdh, Louise LU ; Hosseini, Hasan LU ; van de Beek, Remco ; Andersson, Jafet C.M. ; Hashemi, Hossein LU orcid and Olsson, Jonas LU (2026) In Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 19(2). p.461-483
Abstract

Short-duration extreme rainfall can cause severe impacts in built environments and flood mitigation measures require high-resolution rainfall data to be effective. It is a particular challenge to observe convective storms, which are expected to intensify with climate change. However, rainfall monitoring networks operated by national meteorological and hydrological services generally have limited ability to observe rainfall at sub-hourly and sub-kilometer scales. This paper investigates the capability of second- and thirdparty rainfall sensors to observe a highly localized convective storm that hit southwestern Sweden in August 2022. Specifically, we compared the observations from professional weather stations, C-band radar, X-band... (More)

Short-duration extreme rainfall can cause severe impacts in built environments and flood mitigation measures require high-resolution rainfall data to be effective. It is a particular challenge to observe convective storms, which are expected to intensify with climate change. However, rainfall monitoring networks operated by national meteorological and hydrological services generally have limited ability to observe rainfall at sub-hourly and sub-kilometer scales. This paper investigates the capability of second- and thirdparty rainfall sensors to observe a highly localized convective storm that hit southwestern Sweden in August 2022. Specifically, we compared the observations from professional weather stations, C-band radar, X-band radar, Commercial Microwave Links and Personal Weather Stations to get a full impression of the sensors' strengths and weaknesses in the context of convective storms. The results suggest that second- and third-party networks can contribute important information on short-duration extreme rainfall to national weather services. The second-party network assisted in quantifying the magnitude and spatial variability of the event with high accuracy. The third-party network could contribute to the understanding of the duration and spatial distribution of the storm, but it underestimated the magnitude compared with the reference sensors.

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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
volume
19
issue
2
pages
23 pages
publisher
Copernicus GmbH
external identifiers
  • scopus:105028484080
ISSN
1867-1381
DOI
10.5194/amt-19-461-2026
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
749b162c-f351-4750-bf7b-4cfc85d9e851
date added to LUP
2026-02-19 14:57:58
date last changed
2026-02-19 14:59:11
@article{749b162c-f351-4750-bf7b-4cfc85d9e851,
  abstract     = {{<p>Short-duration extreme rainfall can cause severe impacts in built environments and flood mitigation measures require high-resolution rainfall data to be effective. It is a particular challenge to observe convective storms, which are expected to intensify with climate change. However, rainfall monitoring networks operated by national meteorological and hydrological services generally have limited ability to observe rainfall at sub-hourly and sub-kilometer scales. This paper investigates the capability of second- and thirdparty rainfall sensors to observe a highly localized convective storm that hit southwestern Sweden in August 2022. Specifically, we compared the observations from professional weather stations, C-band radar, X-band radar, Commercial Microwave Links and Personal Weather Stations to get a full impression of the sensors' strengths and weaknesses in the context of convective storms. The results suggest that second- and third-party networks can contribute important information on short-duration extreme rainfall to national weather services. The second-party network assisted in quantifying the magnitude and spatial variability of the event with high accuracy. The third-party network could contribute to the understanding of the duration and spatial distribution of the storm, but it underestimated the magnitude compared with the reference sensors.</p>}},
  author       = {{Petersson Wårdh, Louise and Hosseini, Hasan and van de Beek, Remco and Andersson, Jafet C.M. and Hashemi, Hossein and Olsson, Jonas}},
  issn         = {{1867-1381}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{461--483}},
  publisher    = {{Copernicus GmbH}},
  series       = {{Atmospheric Measurement Techniques}},
  title        = {{Have you ever seen the rain? Observing a record convective rainfall with national and local monitoring networks and opportunistic sensors}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-461-2026}},
  doi          = {{10.5194/amt-19-461-2026}},
  volume       = {{19}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}