GrADS and precip units

[Rafael Rosolem]

Dear Dan,

1 kg/m2 = 1 mm

Rafael

Dan Leins wrote:
> List,
>
> I dumped the contents of an eta 48hr grib file using grib2ctl to a
> control file so I could use GrADS to plot surface pressure and precip.
> However I couldn't help but notice that the units for Surface Convective
> Precip were in kg/m^2.  Pardon my ignorance, as I've never actually
> plotted precip contours before, but how does this convert into inches or
> even centimetes?  The values produced seemed suspiciously high, similar
> to something you might see in a convective feedback situation, and I was
> wondering if there is some sort of conversion factor I'm not aware of,
> or if I should literally expect 4" liquid equivalent in a 3 hr period?
>
> Thanks,
> Dan