[Figure 2]
However, the decline and significant gaps in gauge measurement, coupled with the unavailability of historical meteorological data for research are key constraints that limits knowledge in the Congo basin. Hence, the intricacies surrounding precipitation distribution over the Congo basin was therefore assessed by comparing two observational reference gauged precipitation products, the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC, Schneider et al., 2014) and Climate Research Unit (CRU TS4.01, Harris et al., 2014) derived precipitation (http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/cru/) using analysis of variance and other metrics (linear rates, correlations, and cumulative departures). GPCC and CRU precipitation estimates over the Congo basin during different climatological periods seem to be somewhat consistent with a range of correlation values between 0.80 and 1.00 (Fig. 2a).