Dr. Yaw O-Asante Mr.

R M Mambwe
Civil Engineering Dept., Civil Engineering Dept.,
CPUT, Bellville Campus. CPUT, Bellville Campus.
ABC Building ABC Building
Room 1.34 Room 1.06
 PRECIPITATION
Precipitation includes:
 Rainfall
 Hail
 Snow
 Sleets, etc.
Precipitation regions in S/Africa
 Summer rainfall region
 Winter rainfall region
 All season rainfall
Climatic factors influencing precipitation:
 wind,
 temperature,
 atmospheric pressure and humidity.

2
 Types of Precipitation
3 major types:

 Convective precipitation –
i. this is brought about by
heating of the air at the
interface with the ground.
ii. the heated air expands with
a resultant reduction in
weight.
iii. the heated air mass rises to
higher levels
iv. it becomes saturated
v. forms clouds and
vi. precipitates in the form of
light showers or
thunderstorms (typical in
the tropics). 3
 Types of Precipitation
 Orographic precipitation – this result where
i. a mountain range intercepts the moist air flow,
ii. the air is forced to ascend or rise.
iii. As it ascends it cools and
iv. will shed some or all of its water content as rain or snow.

4
 Types of Precipitation
 Cyclonic – Cyclonic precipitation results from
movement of air masses from high-pressure regions
to low-pressure regions. Two types of cyclonic
precipitation: Non-frontal and frontal
precipitations.

 Frontal – warm air is lifted over the cold air at

the contact zone between air masses.
 If the air masses are moving so that warm air
replaces colder air, the front is known as warm
front,
 If on the other hand, cold air displaces warm air, the
front is said to be cold.
 If the front is not in motion, it said to be stationary
front.

 Non-frontal – In this case, the moist warm air

mass is stationary and moving cold air mass
meets it. Thus, due to lightness of the warm air,
there is passive ascent of warm air over clod air
owing to the active under cutting. Here, there is
no frontal surface. 5
 Types of Precipitation
Types of Precipitation occurring in S/Africa

 Internal regions receive primarily convectional rainfall.

 Mountainous areas (especially the Drakensberg) receive

orographic rainfall.

 Eastern coast of S/Africa receives Frontal rainfall (cold and

warm fronts).

6
 Measurement of precipitation - instrumentation
Precipitation: is measured with a
rain gauge placed in an open area.

Types of rain gauge:

 Standard rain gauge
 Tipping bucket
 Weighing precipitation gauge
 Optical rain gauge
 Acoustic rain gauge
Gauge reading intervals:
 Daily (every 24 hrs)
 Monthly
 Yearly
Records of precipitation
 South African Weather
Services (web)
 DWAF (web)
7
 Determination of Precipitation – Ungauged sites
Point Precipitation
Precipitation data collected at rain stations are called point
precipitation data
Uses of point precipitation data:
 determine the frequency and character of precipitation in the vicinity of
the site.
 collectively to estimate areal variability of rain (areal precipitation)
 individually to develop design storm characteristics for small catchments
(i.e. intensity-duration-frequency curves).

Sometimes it becomes necessary to estimate point precipitation

at a given locations from recorded values at surrounding sites.
This is normally done to:
 fill missing records or
 determine representative point precipitation to be used at the point of
interest. 8
 Determination of point precipitation
(Distance) Weighted Average 10

method 8

6 C
Consider that rainfall is to be estimated
for a point A with coordinates (0,0) 4

Quadrant 2 Quadrant 1
D 2 B

 establish a set of axes (x, y) running 0 A

x
through A and determine the absolute 10 8 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 8 10

coordinates of the nearest surrounding 2 F

stations: e.g. B(4,2), C(1,6), D(3,2), E(3,3), E

and F(2,2). Quadrant 3

4
Quadrant 4
6

 record or tabulate the station points, 8

rainfall values, and coordinates as shown
in columns 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively in 10

Table 1-3. y

Col 1 Col 2 Col 3 Col 4 Col 5 Col 6 Col 7

 Column 5: – calculate for each station the
distance D2 from Point A, expressed as: Rainfall, P

D  X  Y
2 2 2
Point (mm) ΔX ΔY (D2) W = 1/D2 PxW
A ? 0 0
 Column 6: – calculate the weights (W) for
each station, expressed as: B 1.60 4-0=4 2-0=2 20 0.05 0.08
and sum all the weights (ΣW). W  D 2
1
C 1.80 1-0=1 6-0=6 37 0.03 0.05

 Column 7: – calculate (PxW) for each D 1.50 3-0=3 2-0=2 13 0.08 0.12

 P  W 
station and sum them as: E 2.00 3-0=3 3-0=3 18 0.06 0.11
F 1.70 2-0=2 2-0=2 8 0.13 0.21

 The rainfall at the point of interest, A is ΣW = 0.33 Σ(P x W) = 0.57

therefore calculated as: P  W  Σ(P x W)/ΣW = 1.70 mm
W
 Determination of areal precipitation
The isohyetal method Construction of an isohyetal map: (a) locate rain gauges
and plot values; (b) interpolate between gauges; (c) plot
This method is based on isohyets.
interpolation and it closely
resembles the calculation of
contours in surveying and
mapping. The procedures are
explained below:

 Plot the rain gauge locations (using

their coordinates) on a suitable
map. Record rainfall depths against
each station (see Figure a)
 Interpolate between gauges as in
(Figure b).
 Plot isohyets (lines of equal rainfall
depths) by connecting depths of
same values as in (Figure c).
 Calculate areas between two
successive isohyets (A1, A2, …An)
 Determine the average precipitation
for each area (P1, P2 …Pn). This is
simply equal to the average of the
two isohyets bounding each area.
 Calculate the average precipitation
for entire catchment from the
formula:
 ( Ai Pi )
Pave 
 Ai
10
 Determination of areal precipitation
The Thiessen method Construction of a Thiessen diagram: (a) connect rain gauge locations; (b)
The procedure for using the draw perpendicular bisectors; and (c) calculate Thiessen weights (A1, A2,
A3).
Thiessen method is described
below:
 Plot the rain gauge locations
(using their coordinates) on a
suitable map.
 Draw lines to connect rain
gauge locations as in Figure a.
 Draw perpendicular bisectors
to each line, Figure b.
 Measure the areas thus
allocated to each station and
express them as percentage of
the total area under
consideration. This percentage
is called the Thiessen aerial
weights (A1, A2, and A3); Figure
Station Area for Areal weight Rainfall, (Ai x Pi)
c.
substation (Ai) Pi (mm)
 Calculate the average
precipitation for entire (km2) (mm)
catchment from the formula: 1 30 0.42 15.2 6.38
where Pi is the rainfall depth at 2 17 0.23 10 2.30
each location.
 ( Ai Pi ) 3 25 0.35 14 4.90
Pave 
 Ai Σ 72 1 39 Σ(AiPi) = 13.58 mm
11
 Intensity-duration-frequency analysis
Definitions - Wilson
Intensity: measure of the quantity of rain falling in a given time (mm/hour). The
shorter the time rain falls, the greater the intensity the storm. See Table 2.4 for
world’s greatest recorded point rainfalls.
𝒂
i= ; where:
𝒕+𝒃
i = intensity (mm/h); t = time (h); a and b are locality constants

Duration: length of time over which rain falls.

Frequency: expectation that a given depth of precipitation will fall in a given

time.

 The relationship of these three is an important one. In many design problems

related to watersheds such as runoff disposal, road construction, culvert design,
it is necessary to know the rainfall intensities of different durations and
different return periods (Chapter 6)
The curve that shows the inter-dependency between i
(mm/hr), D (duration/time in min/hours) and frequency
F(year) is called IDF curve.

230
220 5-yr
210
10-yr
200
190 20-yr
180 50-yr
170
Rainfall intensity (mm/hr)

160
150
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Time (min)
 Depth area duration analysis
 Precipitation over an area is variable, with greater depths
observed at the centre and reduces outward
 This relationship is depicted in figure 2.10 p 23 and
described by Holland for areas up to 10 km2 in storms lasting
between 2 and 120 mins Wilson p19

 Where
 P= average rain depth over the area,
 P = point depth measured at the centre of the area,
 A=total area in km2
 t*= an inverse gamma function of stormtime obtained from the correlation
in Figure 2.11
 Preparation of rainfall data
 Before using rainfall data, it is necessary to check the
data for continuity and consistency
 Missing data (section 2.8.6 p24 Wilson)
 Record errors
 Missing Precipitation Data
 Continuous precipitation records at gauging stations are not
always available

 Recording devices may malfunction, a person may fail to

record precipitation at a non-recording gauge

 The values of missing data may need to be estimated

 There are basically two conditions for which estimates of

daily precipitation depths may be obtained

 Both are premised on average annual precipitation data from

at least 3 adjacent stations

 The stations must be located close to the station with

missing data and spaced out evenly around it
1. If the average annual precipitation at each of the
adjacent stations varies from the average annual
precipitation of the station with the missing data by
less than 10%, then a simple average is determined:

Where Pa , Pb and Pc are the daily precipitation data

from the adjacent stations and
Px is the estimated daily precipitation at the station
with missing data.
 If the average annual precipitation at each of the
adjacent stations varies from the average annual
precipitation of the station with the missing data by
more than 10% , then a normal ratio method is used

 In this method, the depths at each of the adjacent

stations are weighted by the ratio of the average annual
precipitation at the missing station and the average
precipitation at each of the stations.

 The daily average value is then derived by the simple

arithmetic average technique
 1 𝑁𝑥 𝑁𝑥 𝑁𝑥
𝑃𝑥 = 𝑃𝑎 + 𝑃𝑏 + 𝑃𝑐
𝑛 𝑁𝑎 𝑁𝑏 𝑁𝑐

𝑁𝑥 𝑃𝑎 𝑃𝑏 𝑃𝑐
𝑃𝑥 = + +
𝑛 𝑁𝑎 𝑁𝑏 𝑁𝑐
where :
Pa, Pb and Pc are the daily precipitation data from the adjacent
stations;
Px is the estimated daily precipitation at the station with missing
data
Nx is the average annual precipitation from the station with the
missing data
Ni are the average annual precipitation value from the adjacent
stations
n = number of adjacent stations with known daily precipitations

Reference: Wanielista
 Alternatively, a graphical solution may be found where the
daily/monthly precipitation values (X- axis) are plotted
against the annual average values (Y -axis) at the respective
stations.

Nx
precipitation
Annual

Px (Missing data)

Daily/monthly
precipitation
 Consistency-Double mass curve
• Hydrologic data usually exhibits trends. Discernible changes
in hydrologic data are usually due to meteorological
conditions. Sometimes, however, changes in trend occur as a
result of gauging variations, e.g. obstructions to the gauging
devices

• The point in the data set where /when change in hydrologic

regime / trend/ consistency occurs, can be evaluated by
plotting and analysing a double mass curve for the
particular data set

• How? Assuming that it is the data of station X that is being

checked for inconsistency
• A group of 5 to 10 surrounding stations in the vicinity of the
problem station X is selected

• The rainfall data of station X and the average data of the

neighbouring stations are then arranged in (i) chronological
order (from old to recent)or (ii) reverse chronological order
(from recent to old record) . See Question 2.7 Table on p40.

• Compute cumulative values of the precipitation at station X

(∑Px) as well as the cumulative of the average values of
surrounding stations (∑Pavg) starting from the earliest / latest
record.

• Plot the (∑Px) on X-axis against (∑Pavg) on Y-axis as shown

below
 Double Mass Curve Analysis

5
accumulated annual rainfall of X stn in 10^3 cm

4.5

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Accumulated annual rainfall of neigbouring stns in 10^3 cm
• A decided break in the slope of the resulting plot is observed
that indicates a change in precipitation regime of station X,
i.e inconsistency.

• If the trend of the early record is extended (shown by the

broken line) , it will deviate from the data set. This point
where this deviation occurs is the point where the change
occurred.

• The time of change may be estimated by referring to the

data set
 How to determine correct values for station X
• Using the graphical method, one can read off the correct
cumulative values for station X from the extended trend
line by using the cumulative neighbouring station values
as reference.

• The differences between the successive cumulative

values from the point where the change occurred
onwards are the correct observations that should have
been made.

• Alternatively , a correction factor (ratio of slopes) may

be applied to the original recorded precipitation at time
period t1 at station X to obtain the corrected
precipitation ( see next figure)
 Double Mass Curve Analysis

5
accumulated annual rainfall of X stn in 10^3 cm

4.5

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Accumulated annual rainfall of neigbouring stns in 10^3 cm
 Double Mass Curve Analysis

5
Mc c

accumulated annual rainfall of X stn in 10^3 cm

4.5

Px
Ma a
3.5
a
3
c
2.5 Pcx
2

1.5

0.5 t1
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Accumulated annual rainfall of neigbouring stns in 10^3 cm

Pcx – corrected precipitation at any time period t1 at stationX

Mc
Pcx  Px Px – Original recorded precp. at time period t1 at station X
Mc – corrected slope of the double mass curve
Ma Ma – original slope of the mass curve