Tuesday, June 17, 2014 at 10:00 AM AKDT Speaker: Stephanie A McAfee, University of Nevada, Reno Changes in precipitation are important drivers of many observed hydrological and ecological processes, and precipitation is a key component of many studies. However, existing studies of precipitation trends in Alaska simply did not agree about the magnitude or even direction of trends. We revisited the question, analyzing homogeneity and trends in station data and three commonly used gridded precipitation data sets. We identified numerous inhomogeneities in both the station data and the gridded products and discovered that the three gridded products displayed very dissimilar patterns of trend. Finally, we will present some suggests for moving forward despite the imperfect data. Study authors: Stephanie McAfee (UN - Reno), Galina Guentchev (NCAR) and Jon K. Eischeid (CIRES)