Raingauge quality-control algorithms and the potential benefits for radar-based hydrological modelling

Raingauges and weather radar are essential sources of rainfall information for hydrological modelling and forecasting. However, significant errors in raingauge time-series can drastically affect raingauge-only and combined radar-raingauge rainfall estimates. In turn, these errors can have a negative impact on hydrological model calibration, performance and failure diagnosis. This study considers the automated quality-control of 15 minute rainfall totals obtained from 981 tipping-bucket raingauges across England & Wales. The Grid-to-Grid distributed hydrological model, now operated by the Flood Forecasting Centre in support of national flood warning, is used with gridded rainfall estimates to assess the utility of the raingauge quality-control procedures. Although a historical dataset is used here for demonstration and assessment purposes, the automated algorithms have been designed for implementation in real-time.