On July 18, 1942, the town of Smethport, PA, received 15 inches of rain in one hour—one of the highest precipitation rates ever seen on Earth. Rain of that rate, of course, can cause widespread flooding, landslides, damage to infrastructure, and worse.

The rates at which rain, snow, or other forms of precipitation fall are of great interest to researchers, decision-makers, and planners alike as they seek to understand the impact of their accumulation. To aid them, NASA collects enormous amounts of data from ground and satellite instruments suitable for analyzing precipitation rates. These data can be helpful in assessing drought and wildfire risk, the threat of flooding, landslides, and deep snow from storms, ecosystem health, seasonal and climate-related rainfall changes, and other scenarios.