THE RAINFALL DISTRIBUTION IN THE PACIFIC REGION 



By Takeshi Sekiguchi, Central Meteorological Observatory, Japan 



[A bstract] 



The islands of the Pacific do not show any remarkable relief so that 

 we might expect the development of zonal climatic areas, especially 

 with regard to rainfall. Up to the present the most precise information 

 on the rainfall distribution was that published by G. Schott in 1933. 

 Since then more precise and more numerous climatic data have come to 

 hand from many stations in the Pacific. From these data a new rainfall 

 map of the Pacific Ocean can be drawn (Fig. 2). This paper gives a 

 description of the new rainfall map and attempts the classification of the 

 Pacific into rainfall zones. It is pointed out that the rainfall of some of 

 the Pacific islands shows very great variability, and a map of the annual 

 variation of rainfall is presented (Fig. 1). 



Discussion 



It was agreed that the map was more reliable in the neighbourhood of 

 the former Japanese mandated islands, but doubts were expressed as to 

 the appropriateness of the values taken for the rainfall of such places 

 as the Hawaiian Islands and the region north-east of the Cook Islands. 



ST PAUL Is. 

 DUTCH HARBOUR 



MIDWAY 

 HONOKAA 



FANNING 

 AAALDEN 



APIA (SAMOA) 



AVARUA 

 RURUTU 



CHATHAM 



MACQUARIE 



60S 



Fig. I. 



101 



