Extended Data Table 2 Drought-year precipitation amount and drought severity

From: Asia’s glaciers are a regionally important buffer against drought

  1. For each basin, the mean annual precipitation, precipitation in the driest year (over the period 1951–2007) and mean annual precipitation during a drought with a 30-year recurrence interval (‘1-in-30 year annual precip.’) is shown; percentages for the second two quantities correspond to the fraction of the mean annual precipitation, and the percentile shows where the drought year total falls within the distribution for the full record. Recurrence intervals are calculated from the Γ distribution parameters (α and β) for annual basin precipitation for 1951–2007. For some basins, the series is too short to define the recurrence interval accurately. Peak monthly NMF for the named drought years is calculated using the observed spatial and temporal temperature distribution for that year. The peak NMF during a 30-year-recurrence-interval drought is estimated from the summer precipitation total with a 30-year recurrence interval and the series-mean monthly temperature distribution.*Drought rating is according to the World Meteorological Organization (http://www.wamis.org/agm/pubs/SPI/WMO_1090_EN.pdf).
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