Chapter 1. This thesis presents studies on the variability of precipitation in the Netherlands from datasets collected by radars, rain gauges and disdrometers. Accurate rainfall estimates are highly relevant in hydrology, meteorology and climatology as precipitation has a large impact on society. Precipitation has been studied extensively in the past, although it is impossible to describe all processes and behavior involved. This thesis attempts to add to the knowledge on precipitation. In the first chapter a short overview of rainfall variability at different scales is presented together with the most common instruments for measuring precipitation. Chapter 2. The spatial variability of daily rainfall accumulations is studied. Ninety-day averaged semi-variograms are created based on a 30-year data set gathered by automatic stations operated by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). This is complemented by a one-year dataset of 10 gauges within a 5 km radius around CESAR (Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research) in the center of the Netherlands. It is shown that it is possible to derive an average semi-variogram that describes the climatology of daily precipitation for each day of the year. Chapter 3. The study of chapter 2 is extended by investigating accumulation intervals shorter than daily scales. These are at 12, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1-hour accumulation intervals. It is shown that at shorter temporal scales the behavior of semi-variograms of precipitation still shows a clear seasonal trend. At hourly and two-hourly accumulation intervals the signal of the range becomes fairly constant during the summer due to the limited accumulation period, the frequent occurrence of convective precipitation, and measurement errors. This illustrates the lower limit of using cosine functions to describe variogram parameters. By fitting a power-law function through the different cosine parameters it is possible to describe the semi-variance of precipitation at scales between 1 and 24 hours using a ...