Rainstorm statistics conditional on soil moisture index: Temporal and spatial characteristics

Soil moisture is the primary hydrological state variable that controls and it is controlled by land surface processes. Assessment of feedback mechanisms between land surface and the atmosphere must involve soil moisture. The Midwestern region of the United States is used as a case example in the preliminary investigations on the hypothesis that the structure and development of storm events are influenced by soil moisture conditions. In particular we deal with the antecedent soil moisture condition influence on storm precipitation amounts and interstorm durations. The analysis based on observations indicates that when the soil moisture is low, the ensuing interstorm duration and drying period is anomalously long. We also show that storm precipitation amounts are larger when the antecedent soil moisture is anomalously high. This finding supports the hypotheses that the Summer 1993 floods over Midwestern United States were partially forced by moist antecedent conditions.