Hi,

Another question relating to our work on migrating gridded UK observations data 
to NetCDF...

We have several variables that we describe loosely as 'days of rain'. Strictly 
speaking they are a count (e.g. for a calendar month) of the number of days 
when the 24-hour precipitation total was greater than or equal to a threshold. 
We currently generate grids for three thresholds - 0.2mm, 1.0mm and 10.0mm. My 
intention is to use the following existing standard name:

number_of_days_with_lwe_thickness_of_precipitation_amount_above_threshold

My only slight problem is that the definition implies 'greater than' whereas 
our variables are 'greater than or equal to' the threshold. Assuming the 
observations have a precision of 0.1 mm (which is true for the UK) I could 
declare the thresholds to be 0.1mm, 0.9mm and 9.9mm respectively. 
Alternatively, to avoid the assumption about precision I could use 0.19999mm, 
0.99999mm and 9.99999mm.

Neither option seems very elegant or satisfactory. To define new standard 
name(s) seems over the top. What advice would others give? Is there a way to 
adapt the existing threshold variables (there are currently 8, relating to air 
temperature, precipitation and wind speed) to cope with both 'greater/less 
than' and 'greater/less than or equal to', or should I just use one of my 
solutions given above?

Thanks,

Dan

PS I appreciate this topic may have been discussed before, however I can't seem 
to find a way to search the mailing list archives. Is this possible and if so 
how? Thanks.


Dan Hollis   Climatologist
Met Office   Hadley Centre   FitzRoy Road   Exeter   Devon   EX1 3PB   United 
Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1392 886780   Fax: +44 (0)1392 885681
E-mail: [email protected]   Website: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk
For UK climate and past weather information, visit 
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate


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