Fitting daily precipitation amounts using the SB distribution.

The log-normal, gamma, Weibull, SB and beta distributions were fit to daily precipitation amounts for each calendar month for a 38-year period. Data are from the high precipitation zone of the southern Appalachian Mountains. The SB distribution, a generalization of the log-normal, consistently fit the data best. The gamma distribution fit rainfall amounts accumulated for two and three consecutive wet days. Higher order Markov chains, up through the fifth order, described the data better than lower order chains. The SB distribution of precipitation amounts on all dates preceded by dry days is different from that for all dates preceded by precipitation.