The rainfall reliability wizard—a new tool to rapidly analyse spatial rainfall reliability with examples

A new computer-based tool, the Rainfall Reliability Wizard, is described for rapid spatial assessments of rainfall reliability. It employs conditional statistical methods to analyse rainfall reliability using over 100 years of gridded monthly rainfall data across Australia. Features of the Wizard include analyses of long term inter-seasonal and intra-seasonal reliability, discrete events, and the ability to analyse in absolute and relative terms. The Wizard is an easy-to-use program that runs on personal computers and a simplified version of the software is available on the Internet. Selected functions of the Wizard are illustrated in this paper which includes an analysis of rainfall reliability and the drought event of 1994 across the Australian wheat belt.