Thunderstorm Precipitation Effects on the Rainfall-Erosion Index of the Universal Soil Loss Equation

Abstract

The universal soil loss equation (USLE) is widely used for estimating annual and individual storm erosion from field-sized watersheds. Records from a single precipitation gage in climatic areas dominated by thunderstorms can be used to estimate the erosion index (EI) only for the point in question on individual storms or for a specific annual value. Extrapolating the results for more than about a mile leads to serious error in estimating the erosion by the use of the USLE. Short time intervals must be used to obtain an adequate estimate of the EI when using the USLE. The variability of the annual EI can be approximated with a log-normal distribution. All studies indicated that investigations are needed to facilitate estimating the average annual EI from precipitation data as reported by state climatological summaries for states west of the 104th meridian. Additional work is needed to facilitate estimating the EI value from the precipitation data available in most areas of the southwest where thunderstorms dominate the rainfall pattern.