HESS Hydrology and Earth System Sciences HESS Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 1607-7938 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/hess-7-245-2003 TECHNICAL NOTE: <br>First evidence of a structured and dynamic spatial pattern of rainfall within a small humid tropical catchment Bidin K. 1 Chappell N. A. 2 3 School of Science and Technology, University Malaysia Sabah, 88999 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Institute of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK Email for corresponding author: n.chappell@lancaster.ac.uk 30 04 2003 7 2 245 253 Copyright: © 2003 K. Bidin 2003 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ This article is available from https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/7/245/2003/hess-7-245-2003.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/7/245/2003/hess-7-245-2003.pdf

In a study of the spatial variability of rainfall across a network of 46 raingauges in a 4 km<sup>2</sup> rainforest catchment in the interior of northeastern Borneo, seasonal rainfall totals were correlated with raingauge separation distance, aspect and relief. A very high degree of spatial variability in seasonal totals across a very small area was found, even in comparison with other regions experiencing convective rainfall. Moreover, it shows systematic, stochastic structure in rainfall is present over scales of 10s to 100s metres; these patterns change from the southwest monsoon (May-October) to the northeast monsoon (November-April). Local associations with aspect and relief are present but the seasonal changes in rainfall pattern over the whole 4 km<sup>2</sup> catchment must relate to more complex local topographic effects on the regional windfield.</p> <p style="line-height: 20px;"><b>Keywords: </b>catchment, Malaysia,monsoon, rainfall, spatial variability