Comprehensive Catalog of Extreme Precipitation Events in Northern-Central Chile (17.5°S–30°S)

This dataset provides a comprehensive catalog of the most extreme seasonal rainfall events in northern to north-central Chile from 1979 to 2019, spanning three latitudinal bands (17.5ºS–23.5ºS, 23.5ºS–27ºS, and 27ºS–30ºS). The catalog was developed using the CR2METv2.5 daily precipitation product, along with ERA5 vertically integrated water vapor transport (IVT) fields. Each recorded event includes meteorological descriptors such as the event date, precipitation category, maximum precipitation within the respective latitudinal band, average storm temperature, and estimated snow line elevation inferred from empirical methods and MODIS-based remote sensing.Events are classified into three main precipitation modes: 1) stratiform, 2) coastal, and  3) Andes mountain. The Andes mountain mode is further subdivided into five subcategories based on IVT patterns and precipitation location: 3.1) North Andes, 3.2) Along Andes, 3.3) South Andes, 3.4) Convergence, and 3.5) Westerly IVT. These classifications help identify distinct meteorological patterns that drive extreme precipitation in different parts of the study region.Seasons lacking extreme precipitation events are excluded from the catalog (Omitted). The reference product to quantify precipitation is CR2Met v2.5 (Boisier et al., 2018). We additionally used gridded temperature from this product to estimate freezing level, considering a Digital Elevation Model regridded to the same horizontal resolution of the product (0.05°) at daily time steps.Additionally, we computed the snow line elevation during the event from 2001 to 2021 using the MODIS Snow Cover database (Hall & Riggs, 2021). The TERRA and AQUA daily imagery was pre-processed to determine which pixels are snow covered (NDSI above 0.4) and to fill cloud covered pixels according to the methodology proposed by Gafurov & Bárdossy (2009). Lastly, we implemented an algorithm that optimizes the observed snowline elevation according to the distribution of snow and not-snow pixels (Krajčí et al., 2014). For events where the snowline elevation could not be determined, a value of NA is assigned.For further details, please refer to the ReadMe PDF included in the catalog ZIP file. This research was supported by the Advanced Mining Technology Center (AMTC) via project AFB230001 ANID and the project FONDEF ID22I10122 ANID.