With the first-order Markov-chain model, the probability of rain on a given day is conditioned on the wet or dry status of the previous day. A wet day is defined as a day with 0.1 mm of rain or more.
The user is required to input the probability of a wet day on day i given a wet day on day i−1,Pi−1(W/W), and the probability of a wet day on day i given a dry day on day i−1,Pi​(W/D), for each month of the year. From these inputs the remaining transition probabilities can be derived:
Pi​(D/W)=1−Pi​(W/W) 1:3.1.1
Pi​(W/W)=1−Pi​(W/D) 1:3.1.2
where is the probability of a dry day on day given a wet day on day and is the probability of a dry day on day given a dry day on day .
To define a day as wet or dry, SWAT+ generates a random number between 0.0 and 1.0. This random number is compared to the appropriate wet-dry probability, or . If the random number is equal to or less than the wet-dry probability, the day is defined as wet. If the random number is greater than the wet-dry probability, the day is defined as dry.