Understanding the contrasting environments for localised and widespread heavy rainfall in the tropics

Lin, Dongqi; Singh, Martin S.; Li, Yi-Xian; Bowden, Annabel J.

doi:10.5194/wcd-7-2193-2026

Articles | Volume 7, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-7-2193-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-7-2193-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 7, issue 4

Research article

|

09 Nov 2026

Research article |

| 09 Nov 2026

Understanding the contrasting environments for localised and widespread heavy rainfall in the tropics

Dongqi Lin, Martin S. Singh, Yi-Xian Li, and Annabel J. Bowden

Data sets

Darwin radar event data 2000-2021 for spectrum plume model analysis Dongqi Lin https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21289637

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present Hans Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

ERA5 hourly data on pressure levels from 1940 to present Hans Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.bd0915c6

ERA5 Replicated Datasets ECMWF https://doi.org/10.25914/5f48874388857

AURA - Operational Radar Network Archive Bureau of Meteorology https://doi.org/10.25914/5cb686a8d9450

Model code and software

dongqi-DQ/plume_models: First release (Version v1.0) Dongqi Lin and Martin Singh https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21388030

Short summary

Heavy tropical rainfall can occur in two ways: as localised, high-intensity events, or as widespread events. Using 20 years of radar observations from Darwin, Australia, and a simple theoretical model, we show that these two forms of heavy rain occur in different atmospheric conditions. This helps to better understand the spatial characteristics of rainfall and provides a way to better assess weather and climate models.