More than 15 years of monthly microwave sounding unit rainfall data over the tropical oceans are analyzed to illustrate rainfall variability on various timescales and delineate its spatial patterns. The annual and semiannual components of the seasonal cycle are modeled with first and second annual harmonics at every 2.5¿¿2.5¿ grid square. Regions of highest rainfall variability tend to be characterized by a powerful annual cycle. The semiannual cycle is generally a trivial component of the seasonal cycle, except in some regions where either the mean climatological precipitation is low or where the total seasonal cycle is weak. An interesting exception, in this respect, is a band of the southeastern tropical Pacific extending immediately to the south of the eastern equatorial Pacific cold tongue. Regions of highest climatological mean rainfall are characterized by weak seasonality but strong nonseasonal variability. After seasonality is described and removed from the data, nonseasonal variability is considered via principal component analysis in the time domain. The two dominant modes together describe precipitation variability associated with the El Ni¿o-Southern Oscillation: they outline the evolution of warm- and cold-event precipitation anomalies and contrast the intense 1982--1983 warm event with the moderate events of 1986--1987 and 1992--1993. These two modes display oscillations with predominantly quasi-biennial and ~5-year periods. Another coherent mode summarizes intraseasonal variability which, although inadequately resolved by the monthly average rainfall data, displays typical signs of the 40- to 50-day oscillation. All coherent modes, despite having much of their energy concentrated around rather different frequencies, show signs of interaction. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996