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Figure 6.7. Precipitation frequency, the frequency of moderate to heavy precipitation,
solid precipitation frequency and liquid precipitation frequency, based on present
weather reports in ICOADS records over the 1950-1995 period. Maps are provided
for January and July. See text for details (from Serreze et al., 1997 , by permission of
NSIDC, Boulder, CO).
frequency of moderate to heavy precipitation is the percent of all COADS observa-
tions when moderate to heavy precipitation was observed. The maps for phase are
based on the percentage of all ICOADS observations of precipitation for which the
precipitation was in solid or liquid form (because of mixed precipitation, the two
may not sum to 100 percent). Note that the ICOADS records do not provide precip-
itation amounts - only occurrence, relative intensity and phase.
As expected from precipitation totals ( Figure 6.3 ) January precipitation fre-
quency is higher over the Atlantic sector as compared to the central Arctic, that is,
there are more events. There is an opposing pattern in July. Nevertheless, it shows
that while total winter precipitation in the central Arctic is quite light, the actual
occurrence of precipitation is still common. In many cases these would be recorded
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