Abstract. Catchment scale hydrological studies on drylands are lacking because of the scarcity of consistent data: observations are often available at the plot scale, but their relevance for the catchment scale remains unclear. A database of 24 years of stream gauge discharge and homogeneous high-resolution radar data over the eastern Mediterranean allows to describe the properties of moderate floods over catchments spanning from Desert to Mediterranean climates. Comparing two climatic regions, Desert and Mediterranean, we are able to better identify specific rainfall-runoff properties. Despite the large differences in rainfall forcing between the two regions, the resulting unit peak discharges and runoff coefficients are comparable. In Mediterranean areas rain depth and antecedent conditions are the most important properties to shape flood response. In Deserts, instead, storm core properties display a strong correlation with unit peak discharge and, to a less extent, with runoff coefficient. In this region, an inverse correlation with mean catchment annual precipitation suggests also a strong influence of local surface properties. Preliminary analyses suggest that floods in catchments with wet headwater and dry lower section are more similar to desert catchments, with a strong influence of storm core properties on runoff generation.

Adjustment of weather radar estimates using observed precipitation has been an accepted procedure for decades. Ground observations of precipitation typically come from rain gauges, but can also include data from diverse networks of sensors, with different levels of reliability. This study presents a standardized framework for evaluating adjustment algorithms using synthetically constructed, but realistic, rain grids and weather radar rainfall. Ground observation points are randomly placed throughout the synthetic storm domain and the precipitation for each sensor is extracted from the true rain. Then a subset of the sensors are defined as unreliable, and a log-normal error factor is applied at those locations. This double network of rain sensors could be applicable, for example, when rainfall is derived from signal attenuation between commercial microwave link (CML) antennas. Past research has tested CML observations as a source of precipitation data and validated various radar adjustment algorithms. However, a comprehensive evaluation of adjustment algorithms using accurate gauge data mixed with CML observations at different densities is lacking. Five adjustment algorithms are applied to the synthetic radar grid: Mean Field Bias (MFB), a Multiplicative algorithm, Mixed (additive and multiplicative), Conditional Merge (CondMerge) and Kriging with External Drift (KED). Generation of the synthetic framework, and application of the adjustment algorithms is repeated for 150 realizations. Comparison of coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error and linear regression for all adjustment procedures over all realizations indicates the following results. Only MFB and KED adjustments performed well when using accurate gauges. The kriging based KED was able to achieve good adjustment also with the addition of error-prone sensors. CondMerge and the Mixed and Multiplicative, however, resulted in poorer adjustments.

The Dead Sea sedimentary fill is the basis for interpreting limnological conditions and regional paleo- hydrology. Such interpretations require an understanding of present-day hydroclimatology to reveal the relative impact of different atmospheric circulation patterns on water and sediment delivery to the Dead Sea. Here we address the most important meteorological conditions governing regional and local rain- storm occurrences, with different discharge characteristics. These meteorological controls over the Dead Sea watershed offer insights into past hydrometeorological processes that could have governed the Dead Sea water budget, seasonal and annual flows, floods, and the resultant sedimentology. Rainfall is typically associated with synoptic-scale circulation patterns forced by an upper-level trough that include Medi- terranean cyclones (MCs), active Red Sea troughs (ARSTs), and active subtropical jets (STJs), although other rainstorms and sub-synoptic processes also affect the region. We point to their relative importance in inflow volume, peak discharges, and delivery of sediments from the various environments of the basin. MCs control the annual water amount discharging into the Dead Sea. A change in their frequency, in- tensity, or latitude can substantially alter the lake water balance. A change in frequency or intensity of ARSTs and STJs affects extreme flood and sediment discharge. Floods reach the lake through (a) the Mediterranean-climate-controlled Lower Jordan River, (b) desert-climate-controlled Nahal HaArava, and (c) the arid wadies draining directly into the Dead Sea, some with wetter headwaters. Floods in the wetter parts of the watershed are mainly controlled by MCs, and characterized by larger frequency, volume, and duration, but lower peak discharges and possibly sediment delivery, than floods in the desert parts, which can be produced by the three synoptic types. ARSTs contribute to heavy rainfall, typically of a spotty nature, in the desert parts of the watershed. STJs are currently rare, but their rainfall accumulation may be greater than the annual mean over a broad area in the southern dry Dead Sea watershed. This article presents a review of recent studies, which is extended with new analyses of meteorological, rainfall and flood data, underlining the importance of the Lower Jordan River in sup- plying water volume to the Dead Sea, as compared to the high-discharge, low-volume floods of the arid part of the watershed. Our analyses will help interpret paleoenvironmental conditions in the Dead Sea sedimentary record, and cope with the region's changing climate.

Information on extreme precipitation is essential to managing weather-related risks and designing hydraulic structures. Research attention to frequency analyses based on remotely sensed precipitation datasets, such as those obtained from weather radars and satellites, has been rapidly increasing owing to their potential to provide information for ungauged regions worldwide. Together with the ability to measure the areal scale directly, these analyses promise to overcome the sampling limitations of traditional methods based on rain gauges. This focused review of the literature depicts the state of the art after a decade of efforts, and identifies the crucial gaps in knowledge and methodology that currently hinder the quantitative use of remotely sensed datasets in water resources system design and operation. It concludes by highlighting a set of research directions promising immediate impact with regard to the separation of the sources of uncertainty currently affecting applications based on remotely sensed datasets, the development of statistical methods that can cope with the peculiar characteristics of these datasets, and the improvement of validation methods. Important gains in knowledge are expected from the explicit inclusion of the areal dimension in the analyses and from the fine-scale investigation of extreme precipitation climatology.

The last decade has witnessed the development of methodologies for the post‐flood documentation of both hydrogeomorphological and social response to extreme precipitation. These investigations are particularly interesting for the case of flash floods, whose space–time scales make their observations by conventional hydrometeorological monitoring networks particularly challenging. Effective flash flood documentation requires post‐flood survey strategies encompassing accurate radar estimation of rainfall, field and remote‐sensing observations of the geomorphic processes, indirect reconstruction of peak discharges—as well eyewitness interviews. These latter can give valuable information on both flood dynamics and the related individual and collective responses. This study describes methods for post‐flood surveys based on interdisciplinary collaborations between natural and social scientists. These surveys may help to better understand the links between hydrometeorological dynamics and geomorphic processes as well as the relationship between flood dynamics and behavioral response in the context of fast space–time changes of flooding conditions. This article is categorized under: Science of Water > Methods Science of Water > Hydrological Processes A flash flood and its forensic analysis.

The lack of knowledge on precipitation frequency over ungauged areas introduces a significant source of uncertainty in relevant engineering designs and risk estimation procedures. Radar-based observations offer precipitation information over ungauged areas and thus have gained increasing attention as a potential solution to this problem. However, due to their relative short data records and inherent uncertainty sources, their ability to provide accurate estimates on the frequency of precipitation extremes requires evaluation. This study involves the evaluation of at-site precipitation frequency estimates from NEXRAD Stage IV radar precipitation dataset. We derive precipitation annual maxima series from the 16yrs record (2002-2017) of NEXRAD and we compare against 539 long-term (50yrs) hourly gauge records. In addition, Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves are estimated from both radar and gauge dataset and compared. IDF estimation is based on fitting the Generalize Extreme Value distribution to annual precipitation maxima. Evaluation is carried out over the contiguous United States and results are grouped and presented for five dominant climate classes and for a range of return period and precipitation durations. NEXRAD was shown to overestimate intensities at shorter durations (1- and 3-hr) and low quantiles, while it tends to underestimate higher quantiles at longer durations (24hr). In addition, evaluation of the IDF curves estimated from NEXRAD revealed a distinct geographic dependence with certain regions exhibiting a tendency to overestimation (e.g. east of the Rocky Mountains) or underestimation (Midwest). Overall, this analysis suggests that, while significant discrepancies may exist, there are several cases where NEXRAD provide estimates within the uncertainty bounds of the reference rain gauge dataset. The climate/geographic region and the temporal duration are important aspects to consider. Findings provided in this work on these aspects will hopefully serve as a general guideline for those interested in using NEXRAD estimates for further research or applications on precipitation extremes.

Current literature suggests that wheat production models are limited either to wide-scale or plot-based predictions ignoring pattern of habitat conditions and surficial hydrological processes. We present here a high-spatial resolution (50 m) non-calibrated GIS-based wheat production model for predictions of aboveground wheat biomass (AGB) and grain yield (GY). The model is an integration of three sub-models, each simulating elemental processes relevant for wheat growth dynamics in water-limited environments: (1) HYDRUS-1D, a finite element model that simulates one-dimensional movement of water in the soil profile; (2) a two-dimensional GIS-based surface runoff model; and (3) a one-dimensional process-driven mechanistic wheat growth model. By integrating the three sub-models, we aimed to achieve a more accurate spatially continuous water balance simulation with a better representation of root zone soil water content (SWC) impacts on plant development. High-resolution grid-based rainfall data from a meteorological radar system were used as input to HYDRUS-1D. Twenty-two commercial wheat fields in Israel were used to validate the model in two seasons (2010/11 and 2011/12). Results show that root zone SWC was accurately simulated by HYDRUS-1D in both seasons, particularly at the top 10-cm soil layer. Observed vs simulated AGB and GY were highly correlated with R2 = 0.93 and 0.72 (RMSE = 171 g m−2 and 70 g m−2) having low biases of -41 g m−2 (8%) and 52 g m−2 (10%), respectively. Model sensitivity test showed that HYDRUS-1D was mainly driven by spatial variability in the input soil characteristics while the integrated wheat production model was mostly affected by rainfall spatial variability indicating the importance of using accurate high-resolution rainfall data as model input. Using the integrated model, we predict decreases in AGB and GY of c. 10.5% and c. 12%, respectively, for 1 °C of warming and c. 7.7% and c. 7.3% for 5% reduction in rainfall amount in our study sites. The suggested model could be used by scientists to better understand the causes of spatial and temporal variability in wheat production and the consequences of future scenarios such as climate change.