Figure 2. Representation of various perspectives on soil moisture–precipitation coupling.

Traditionally in the literature, temporal approaches (a) suggest that rain is more likely in wet conditions, while spatial approaches (b) emphasize rain over locally drier patches. The joint perspective presented here (c) highlights that both are valid, and thereby rain is more likely in overall wet conditions but is located over drier (less wet) patches. Shown here are typical soil moisture conditions preceding afternoon rainfall events but do not necessarily imply causal relationships.