Precipitation

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 Precipitation

• Definition
• Forms Of Precipitation
• Precipitation Intensity
• Precipitation Amount
• Measurement Of Precipitation
• Network Design
• Presentation Of Precipitation Data
• Consistency Of Precipitation Data
• Mean Precipitation Of an Area(Mean aerial rainfall)
 Precipitation

Definition:
• All types of moisture reaching to the surface of earth from
atmosphere .
• This condenced water will fall as rain or snow or in any other form of
precipitation.
• The magnitude of precipitation varies with time and space.
• Difference in magnitude of rainfall in various parts of a country at a
given time and variation of rainfall at a place in various seasons of
the year are obvious and need no elaboration.
• This variation is responsible for many hydrological problems like
floods and droughts.
 Precipitation

Forms Of Precipitation:
• Drizzle: (Tiny liquid droplets ,0.1 -- 0.5 mm, intensity <1mm/hr)
• Rainfall: (Liquid drops dia >0.5mm ,intensity > 2.5mm/hr)
• Snowfall: (Ice crystals at elevation >3000m )
• Sleet: (Mixture of rainfall and snowfall)
• Hail : (Ice balls ,5 – 125 mm dia)
• Fogs : (Weak Clouds reaching to the surface)
• Frost : (Freezing of Dew drops)
• Trace : (when amount of ppt < 0.125 mm)
 Rain

– Rain is the Most Common Type of

Precipitation
– If precipitation in the form of water drops of
size larger than 0.5 mm to 6mm
– The rainfall is classified in to
• Light rain – if intensity is trace to 2.5 mm/h
• Moderate – if intensity is 2.5 mm/hr to 7.5 mm/hr
• Heavy rain – above 7.5 mm/hr
• Snow:
– Snow is formed from ice crystal masses,
which usually combine to form flakes
• Hail (violent thunderstorm)
– precipitation in the form of small balls or
lumps usually consisting of concentric layers
of clear ice and compact snow.
– Hail varies from 0.5 to 5 cm in diameter and
can be damaging crops and small buildings.
 Precipitation

Precipitation Intensity:

• Amount of rainfall /time is called as precipitation intensity.Intense

and short rainfalls flow rapidly over the soil,causing erosion and
sudden floods.Where as rainfalls over longer periods are better
used by plants ,enrich aquifers and don’t cause the damages of the
heavy showers.
Precipitation Amount:
• Amount of precipitation is the height that it would reach on a flat soil
if water didn’t disappear for evaporation or surface flowing .
 Temporal and Spatial Variation
of Rainfall
• Rainfall varies greatly both in time and
space
– With respect to time – temporal variation
– With space – Spatial variation

• The temporal variation may be defined as hourly,

daily, monthly, seasonal variations and annual
variation (long-term variation of precipitation)
 Temporal Variation of rainfall at a particular site

Total Rainfall amount = 6.17 cm

14
Rainfall Intensity, cm/hr

12

10

8
6

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Time, min
 Measurement Of Precipitation
• Precipitation is measured as depth of water equivalent from all forms
that would accumulate on a horizontal surface if there are no losses.
• The vertical depth of water is expressed in mm and in inches .
• Precipitation data is the basic input for the study of any water resource
system and should be measured continuously.
• Rainfall is collected and measured in instruments called Rain Gauges .
We have two types of rain gauges:
• Non - Recording raingauges
Standard rain gauge
• Recording raingauges
Float Type rain gauge
Tipping Bucket type rain gauge
Weighing type rain gauge
 Precipitation
• Non - Recording raingauges:

• This rain gauge does not record rain but simply collects .If any non
standard measuring jar is used ,then it should be callibrated to give
directly the depth of rain fall in cm and mm.

• Rain gauge is an instrument used to measure how much rain has

fallen. There are several different types that are grouped by how
they operate. recording rain gauge, non recording rain gauge.
Standard rain gauge:
• The circular collector opening has
an area of either 100 or 200 cm2,
from which rain enters into the
receiving vessel through a funnel.
It gives directly the depth of rain
fall for the day. This system needs
the service of the attending
observer who monitors the gauge
at regular intervals usually daily
and hourly during continuous and
heavy precipitations.
Recording rain gauges:

• These rain gauges gives a continues record of rain fall at a place

over time. Such gauges gives all the required information of a storm
like duration of the storm, intensity and accumulative rainfall.

• The recording gauges are commonly installed along with the known
recording gauges for the purpose of checking and calibration.
• Float Type rain gauge:
 Float Type rain gauge:

• It produces a record of rainfall against time. The automatic tilting

action ensures unlimited collecting capacity. It is frequently used in
conjunction with a daily rain gauge to provide a permanent record of
the start and end of rainfall, together with variations in intensity.
The movement of a float in the collecting chamber causes a pen to
mark a daily or weekly chart, which is viewed through the hinged
front window. When 325mm of rain has fallen , the pen is at the top
of the chart and the chamber tilts and empties. The pen then returns
to the bottom of the chart to start recording again. The Gauge is
constructed from non-ferrous materials and supplied with a hand-
wound clock. Recording is effected on the chart by disposable fibre
tipped pen.
• Tipping Bucket type rain gauge:
• Tipping Bucket type rain gauge:
 Tipping Bucket type rain gauge:

• This type of rain gauge consist of a 200 mm collector that directs the
rain water through a funnel in to a two compartmental buckets. The
size of each bucket is 0.25 mm of rain. Once rain water fills up a
bucket it over balances and the water tips down to the casing of the
container bringing thereby the second bucket to its measuring
position beneath the funnel. It is actually an electric circuit which
records the number of tips during rain.
Weighing type rain gauge:

• This type of gauge can be used for recording rain fall as well as
snow. Rain is collected in a receiver bucket supported in a spring
balance. A mechanical lever arm of the balance is connected with a
pen, which touches a clock mounted drum with a graph paper, as it
rains the weight of the bucket gradually increases. This changes the
position of pen of the balance. With time the pen marks a line on the
continuously moving graph paper. The recording can be taken after
24 hours or seven days depending on the clock and drum size.
 Network Design
• Ideally ,A basin should have as many no of gauges possible to give
a clear representative picture of the aerial distribution of the
precipitation .Factors like economy,topography,accessibility,and
rainfall variability governs the no of stations for a basin.
• There is no definite rule as to how many gauges are needed for a
complete ungauged basin.
• To begin with a few pilot gauges can be fixed and after a few years
of data are available ,statistical analysis can be carried out to check
the adequacy of the system.
• WMO(World Meteorological Organization ) recommended some
standards that for flat ,mountain region (Small and irregular)
.Minimum area for one station under ideal condition in sq –km or
under difficult conditions.
• World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recommendation:
– In flat regions of temperate, Mediterranean and tropical zones
• Ideal  1 station for 600 – 900 km2
• Acceptable 1 station for 900 – 3000 km2
– In mountainous regions of temperate , Mediterranean and
tropical zones
• Ideal  1 station for 100 – 250 km2
• Acceptable  1 station for 250 – 1000 km2
– In arid and polar zone
• 1 station for 1500 – 10,000 km2
• 10 % of the raingauges should be self recording to know the
intensity of the rainfall
 Presentation Of Precipitation
Data
Precipitation data can be presented in many
ways but the most commonly used methods are
given below:
• Rain fall mass curve
• Hyetograph
• DAD Curve
 Rain fall mass curve
• The mass curve of rainfall is plot of the
accumulated precipitation against time .
• Records of Float type and weighing type gauges
are of this form.
• Mass curve of rainfall are very useful in
extracting the information on the duration and
magnitude of a storm. Also ,Intensities at various
time intervals in a storm can be obtained by the
slope of the curve.
 Hyetograph

• A hyetograph is a plot of rainfall intensity against

the time interval.
• The hyetograph is derieved from the mass curve
and is usually represented as a bar chart.
• The area under the hyetograph represents the
total precipitation received in the period.
• It is very convenient way of representing the
characteristics of a storm.
 DAD Curve
• This curve is plotted between area and
depth of precipitation .
Points noted from the graph are:
• When the area of the storm increases ,the
depth of ppt decreases.
• When the duration of the storm increases
for a given area ,the depth of ppt
increases.
 Consistency Of Precipitation
Data
• Consistency of precipitation data is, basically, correcting
the data of a specific station by observing its neighboring
station’s data in a particular span of time.
• Suppose we have a Main Station in a particular area
surrounded by observatory stations. Their annual
precipitations are recorded. If we observe any decrease
in the precipitation of the Main Station with respect to
neighboring test or observatory stations in particular time
duration, then we can correct theoretically the amount of
precipitation which is decreased and hence we can
estimate the actual precipitation of that Main Station.
 Consistency Of Precipitation
Data
• Mark the station which data is going to be corrected.
• Collect the Main Station and its surrounding test station’s average
annual precipitation data of a particular duration of time such as 19
years (as used in the problem).
• Calculate the Cumulative of Main Station precipitation and test
station’s precipitation as done in the problem.
• Then make a graph between Cumulative of test station’s precipitation
data (on x-axis) and Main Station precipitation data (on y-axis).
• The graph would result a straight line if Data is consistent.
• If data is not consistent the graph may fluctuate upward or downward
after particular time duration (year).
• Mark the point on the graph and point out the time (year) and apply
Correction Factor.
 Mean Precipitation of an Area

Methods which we used for the

measurement of mean precipitation are:
• Arithmetic mean method
• Thiessen polygon method
• Isohyetal method
 Arithmetic mean method

• It assumes uniform rainfall distribution which

occurs very seldom.
• Easiest to use but least accurate.
• Consider that basin should be a reasonably a
flat area.
• It does not account for the topographic and other
influences
 Thiessen polygon method

• It assumes linear variation between

gages
• Use when gages are not uniformly
distributed
 Isohyetal method

• Isohyets:
An isohyet is a line joining points of equal
rainfall magnitude.
• Isohyetal method:
Theoretically the most accurate method
Most time consuming method