Application of daily rainfall principal component analysis to the assessment of the rainy season characteristics in Senegal

The interannual variability of the onset and cessation dates of the rainy season (RS) in Senegal is analyzed over the 43 yr period 1950-1992, using daily rainfall data for 34 stations. The use of principal component analysis, based on rainfall only, is explored to identify aggregate, regional indexes for the onset and cessation of the rains. The minimum and maximum values of the cumula- tive scores of principal component 1, for each year, are used to locate the onset and cessation dates, respectively. Very distinct spatial rainfall patterns are found before and after the onset/cessation dates. Mean dates compare favorably with those based on other definitions, though our method is not meant…