Globally observed annual extreme daily and persistent precipitation relative totals

To provide the most comprehensive analysis of observed global extreme daily and persistent precipitation, we use high-quality daily precipitation data from a number of different sources. Co-authors from fifteen countries contributed daily data, most of which until now were not available for global precipitation studies. The compilation of global daily precipitation data includes the GHCND dataset (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ghcn-daily-description), the ECA&D dataset (https://www.ecad.eu/), the USHCN dataset (http://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/ftp/ushcn_daily/), and the dataset for Canada (http://climate.weather.gc.ca/), raw data provided by authors from Argentina, Australia, Benin, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Russia. In total 12151 stations were collated. After quality control and homogeneity test, 6125 high-quality stations with long-term (data are available at least for 45 years) daily precipitation for the period 1961-2010 are remained. The 95th percentile of daily and persistent precipitation series on wet days (≥ 1 mm) is used to identify daily and persistent extremes, respectively. The base period for percentile calculation is 1961-2010. Considering regional precipitation characteristics, the ‘relative total’ used here is not the simple precipitation amount, but a relative measure (%) associated with the local threshold of ‘extremity’ (i.e. the 95th percentile) and the total extreme precipitation amount. The relative total of extreme precipitation is defined as the mean precipitation amount exceeding the threshold divided by the corresponding threshold. This dataset contains the annual extreme precipitation relative totals for the 6125 stations.