Long-Term, Gridded Standardized Precipitation Index for Hawai‘i
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The subject of this research is particularly interesting and up-to-date since the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is one of the most widely used indicators of drought. As it is data description paper I am convinced by the structure and presentation of results and I hope that data past 2012 will be available asap. Authors declare that work is underway to update the monthly rainfall dataset to real-time. The dataset described in the study is of general interest for climatology and hydrology.
There are only a few typos that should be edited/spell checked (eg. line 119 “available for each (s)et of station-based” and “the two data sets were (were) 120 evaluated”.
My impression on the aim of this paper is positive and I recommend to accept it in the present form, with a slight edition of the text.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Thank you for your input and recognition of the value of this work.
In regards to your suggestion:
There are only a few typos that should be edited/spell checked (eg. line 119 “available for each (s)et of station-based” and “the two data sets were (were) 120 evaluated”.
- Please find these and other minor typos have been edited in the updated draft.
Reviewer 2 Report
The work presented here aims to develop a precipitation index to assess the level of drought for Hawai islands through a public monthly rainfall database and tests its efficiency. The index is properly explained and validated. So since this work fits the topic of Data and I consider it can be published in this journal. I will just point some minor corrections:
Attending to the title, the index is just designed for Hawai’I. Can it be used in other areas? In this case, this should be highlighted in the manuscript.
Please, avoid the use of personal expressions such as “we”, “us”, etc…
Line 87 – Tried to access “dryad.org” on Google but the URL is incorrect. Same in the conclusion.
Figure 4 a) and b) Legends and scales are not readable so use a larger font. Please check the frameworks, which are not the same.
Line 183 – There is no map showing the location of the island of Maui. Substitute by the “westernmost island”.
In discussion, what are the advantages of this index you developed vs. other indices e.g. PDSI
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Attending to the title, the index is just designed for Hawai’I. Can it be used in other areas? In this case, this should be highlighted in the manuscript.
- SPI is a previously developed (not by this group) long-standing (1993) widely used precipitation and drought index. Our effort only applied the calculation of SPI to a recently developed gridded rainfall dataset. Classification of this is articulated in several places in the manuscript including new verbiage in lines 65-71. As such we left the title unchanged.
Please, avoid the use of personal expressions such as “we”, “us”, etc…
- Almost all instances of “we” have been removed.
Line 87 – Tried to access “dryad.org” on Google but the URL is incorrect. Same in the conclusion.
- Link to data has been updated in the 2 places in the manuscript and all references to dryad.org have been removed.
Figure 4 a) and b) Legends and scales are not readable so use a larger font. Please check the frameworks, which are not the same.
- Fig 4 a & b maps have been replaced with 2 maps with larger fonts and standard scale, legends and design.
Line 183 – There is no map showing the location of the island of Maui. Substitute by the “westernmost island”.
- Fig 4 a & b maps have been replaced and include name labels for each island.
In discussion, what are the advantages of this index you developed vs. other indices e.g. PDSI
- This is better articulated in new verbiage in lines 65-80.
Thank you for recognition of the importance of this data and work.
