2. Case study
The Algarve is the most southern region of Portugal, with an area of approximately 5000 km2. Fig. 1
shows the location of 36 daily read raingage stations used in this study. The monthly and annual rainfall
depths have been averaged over the period of January 1970–March 1995, and basic sample statistics (mean,
standard deviation, minimum, maximum) are given in Table 1. The subsequent analysis will be conducted on
these averaged data, hence fluctuations of monthly and annual precipitations from one year to another
will not be investigated.