The Generalized Pareto distribution applied to rainfall depths

Abstract

The Generalized Pareto distribution is fitted to Dutch peaks-over-threshold (POT) rainfall series. Maximum likelihood (ML) estimation of the parameters is discussed, with particular reference to bias reduction for the scale and shape parameter. The improvement of the fit in the right tail by left censoring of POT series is discussed, and the dependence of the shape parameter θ of the fitted Generalized Pareto distribution on (a) mean annual number of peaks, and (b) rainfall duration, with fixed or moving starting point, is quantified.