Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics www.atmos-chem-phys.net 1680-7316 1680-7324 5 8 2005 10.5194/acp-5-2147-2005 http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/5/2147/2005/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/5/2147/2005/acp-5-2147-2005.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/5/2147/2005/acp-5-2147-2005.pdf 2147 2154 2005-08-11 Comparison of rain gauge observations with modeled precipitation over Cyprus using Contiguous Rain Area analysis N. Tartaglione S. Mariani C. Accadia A. Speranza M. Casaioli Department of Physics, University of Camerino, Camerino, Italy Agenzia per la Protezione dell’Ambiente e per i Servizi Tecnici, Rome, Italy Department of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Camerino, Camerino, Italy Verification of modeled rainfall with precipitation observed by a rain gauge network has been performed in a case study over the Cyprus Island. Cyprus has a relatively dense rain gauge network. The applied verification method is the Contiguous Rain Area (CRA) analysis. Some drawbacks of the CRA method are pointed out when it is applied to such a case study. Impact on the CRA results, when considering different dimensions of the verification sub-domain and different types of indicators (correlation and mean square error) used in the comparison, are discussed. Results indicate that care should be taken when verification of modeled rainfall is performed over a domain smaller than the model one.