Instructions

Select the state and then, with the reference map, the state-level climate division from the pull-down menus

A default available soil water capacity derived from USGS STASGO data will be updated

Next, you can select the period over which the budget figure plotted with the sliders

The results will be shown below as a traditional Thornthwaite-Mather Budget figure for your selected dates, and a table of the complete available record.

Thornthwaite Budget Graph

Budget Table for Full Period

(T in °C; Water units in mm)

Download Full Budget Period

Download

Introduction

This web application allows you to create a 'Thornthwaite-Mather Water Budget,' a water resource accounting tool that partitions rainfall between

- ideal (or 'potential') evaporation,

- actual evaporation limited by available soil water,

- extraction of water from the soil,

- subsequent recharge of water into the soil, and

- soil and snowpack storage of water

The script behind this page uses the R 'ClimClass' Package

References

Thornthwaite, C.W.; Mather, J.R. The Water Balance; Laboratory in Climatology, Johns Hopkins University: Baltimore, MD, USA, 1955; Volume 8, pp. 1–104.

Emanuele Eccel's R ClimClass Package. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ClimClass