Amazon rainfall map
The Amazon basin holds the largest rainforest on Earth and receives more than two metres of rain in a typical year. This view shows the precipitation rate in millimetres per hour from the NOAA GFS model, on a grid of 0.25 degrees.
Most of the rain falls from towering convective storms. On the map they appear as bright, scattered cells that build in the early afternoon, when the ground is hottest, and fade in the evening. Move the slider through a full day to see that cycle repeat.
Over longer periods, look at the broad band of cloud and showers called the Intertropical Convergence Zone. It lies near the equator and moves slightly north and south through the year, which gives the basin its wetter and drier seasons. In the Andes, to the west, air forced upward by the mountains produces some of the heaviest rain.
The forest also makes its own rain: trees release water vapour that feeds later storms downwind. The forecast shows 48 hours in 3-hour steps, renewed four times a day.