The featured chart attempts to answer the question about how much of our yearly precipitation falls during severe weather. For this analysis, the proxy for severe weather is having an active severe thunderstorm or tornado warning active. The chart shows the absolute and relative contributions of yearly precipitation during warning events, for a period one hour before and one hour after the warning event, and then all other times. For the past decade , during which we have one minute precipitation data from the Des Moines Airport, the relative contribution ranges from about 5 to 20%. The chart average is about 10% or just over 3 inches per year.

Voting:
Good = 19
Bad = 6
Abstain = 5

Tags:   severe