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Email: ollie.ballinger@st-annes.ox.ac.uk 

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Calculating High-Resolution Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index

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This post outlines a workflow for the calculation of a high-resolution version of the Stardardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). This is accomplished in four steps, utilizing Python, R, and JavaScript. Quantifying the precise onset, duration, and end of droughts is difficult. Most approaches have historically measured drought as a prolonged deviation from the mean rainfall in an area. The Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) builds on previous approaches by incorporating temperature data to account for the amount of water lost to evaporation. This is important because in an arid climate, a six week shortage in rainfall during the summer would have a much greater impact on soil moisture than the same shortage during the winter. This is especially important for drought forecasting that accounts for anthropogenic climate change. Indices that do not incorporate temperature data will persistently underestimate drought incidence as global t...
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Did Saudi Arabia Know an Attack was Coming?

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