Dominant factors influencing precipitation efficiency in a continental mid-latitude location

The bulk precipitation efficiency (PE) of transient precipitation systems at a continental, mid-latitude location is established as a function of season and dominant cloud type (convective versus stratiform). These results quantify for the first time controls on PE that have long been assumed to be true. Moreover, previous studies have been unable to establish a link between the efficiency of precipitation systems and short-term changes in the warm cloud depth (T > −10°C). These results show that the depth of the warm cloud layer, over which the collision—coalescence process will dominate, is not a short-term control on PE, but a seasonal one.