Evaluation needs and temporal performance differences of gridded precipitation products in peripheral mountain regions

). If independent stations were considered, the coefficient of efficiency indicated that only three of the gridded datasets (MERRA-2 bias corrected, GPCC, GPCC MP) performed better than the long term station mean for characterizing surface precipitation. Error patterns and magnitudes show that in complex terrain, evaluation of temporal and spatial variations of included observations is a prerequisite for using gridded precipitation products for scientific applications and to avoid overly optimistic performance assessments.