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Regional variations in the annual cycle of rainfall in Ireland as revealed by principal component analysis
Author(s) -
Logue J. J.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0196-1748
DOI - 10.1002/joc.3370040604
Subject(s) - principal component analysis , climatology , environmental science , annual cycle , geography , mathematics , statistics , geology
Principal component analysis is applied to long‐term average monthly rainfall amounts expressed as percentages of the annual average in order to study variations in the annual cycle of average rainfall in Ireland. It is found that these variations can be described in terms of two principal components (PCI and PC2) which together account for about 80 per cent of the total variance. PCI represents a tendency for rainfall to be high in summer as compared to winter and is a maximum in the midlands and north‐east. PC2 represents a tendency for the first half of the year to be relatively wet and the second relatively dry and is a maximum in the south‐east. Physical explanations for these features of the rainfall climate are suggested.