A Markov chain probability model to describe wet and dry patterns of weather at Colombo

Abstract

The hypothesis that the wet and dry patterns of daily precipitation observed in Colombo can be modeled by a first order Markov chain model was tested using daily rainfall data for a 60-year period (1941–2000). The probability of a day being wet or dry was defined with respect to the status of the previous day. Probabilities were assumed to be stationary within a given month. Except for isolated single events, the model is shown to describe the observed sequence of wet and dry spells satisfactorily depending on the season. The accuracy of modeling wet spells is high compared to dry spells. When the model-predicted mean length of wet spells for each month was compared with the estimated values from the data set, a reasonable agreement between the model prediction and estimation is seen (within ±0.1). In general, the data show a higher disagreement for the months having longer dry spells. The mean annual duration of wet spells is 2.6 days while the mean annual duration of dry spells is 3.8 days. It is shown that the model can be used to explore the return periods of long wet and dry spells. We conclude from the study that the Markov chain of order 1 is adequate to describe wet and dry patterns of weather in Colombo.