Precipitation

IRRIGATION ENGINEERING

Copyright © 2014-2021 Testbook Edu Solutions Pvt. Ltd.: All rights reserved
 Download Testbook

Precipitation
 Precipitation denotes all forms of water received by earth from the atmosphere.

 Precipitation and evaporation are continuous processes thereby a balance between these two is called
hydrological cycle. Atmospheric conditions pertinent to hydrological cycle:

i. Latitude differences in solar heating of earth’s surface.

ii. Inclination of earth’s axis.

iii. Uneven distribution of land and water.

iv. Coriolis effect.

 Forms of precipitation:

i. Rain: Droplet size = 0.5 to 0.6 mm

ii. Snow: Ice crystal density = 0.1 g/cc

iii. Drizzle: Drop size < 0.5 mm, Intensity < 1mm/hr

iv. Glaze: Rain or drizzle freezing on coming in contact with solid body.

v. Sleet: Falling rain converting in to ice crystal.

 Index of Wetness (IN): It is the ratio of rainfall in any year to average rain in all years.

Deficiency Category

30% to 45% Large Deficiency

45% to 60% Severe Deficiency

>60% Disastrous Deficiency

 Average rainfall in India = 120 cm, Average rainfall for world = 100 cm.

IRRIGATION ENGINEERING | Precipitation PAGE 2

 Download Testbook

 If IN > 100, then it’s a good year as per irrigation point of view whereas if IN < 100, then it’s a bad
year for irrigation point of view.

 Draught: Climate characterised as deficiency of moisture.

 Metrological Draught: Situation where there is more than 25% decrease in precipitation from normal. If
the probability of occurrence of cloud is 25% to 40% then the area is called Draught Drawn Area.

 Hydrological Draught: If availability of water or moisture in stream, lake, underground sources etc is
below average due to low precipitation, poor management or excess demand then such situation is called
hydrological draught.

 Agricultural Draught: It is characterised by deficiency of moisture required for the optimum growth of
plants. It is expressed in terms of Aridity Index:

Here,

PET = Potential Evapotranspiration = Amount of water consumed by plants for optimum

growth.

AET = Actual Evapotranspiration = Amount of water actually getting consumed by plants.

Aridity Index Range Drought Classification

0 Non-Arid and No-draught

0% to 25% Mild Arid

25% to 50% Moderately Arid

Greater than 50% Severe Arid

Measurement of Rainfall
 Rain Gauge Stations are used to measure the rainfall data. A rain gauge station must be surrounded by
an open area of 5.5m*5.5m. No object should be as near as 30 m or twice the height of nearest
obstruction whichever is more.

IRRIGATION ENGINEERING | Precipitation PAGE 3

 Download Testbook

Types of Rain Gauges

i. Recording type Rain Gauges

ii. Non-Recording type Rain gauges

 Non-Recording type Rain Gauges: Most commonly used in India. These are also known as Symon’s Rain
Gauge. These type of rain gauges contain circular vessel of 12.7 cm diameter and 30.5 cm height above
the ground. Now a days these rain gauges are replaced by fibre glass reinforced polyester rain gauges.

 Recording Type Rain Gauges: These types of rain gauges produce graph of rainfall intensity (in cm/
hour) verses duration of rainfall.

i. Tipping Bucket Type Rain Gauge: These are 30.5 cm size rain gauge with pan of small buckets
and are commonly used in United States of America. Bucket in it is so balanced that rain gets
collected on the bucket up to the point of filling of the bucket which after getting filled eventually
drains in such a way that an empty bucket replaces it. The water drained from the bucket gets
stored in a storage tank.

IRRIGATION ENGINEERING | Precipitation PAGE 4

 Download Testbook

ii. Weighing Bucket Rain Gauge: Water is collected from the funnel in to bucket. The weight of bucket and
time is plotted on the graph. This method gives mass curve of rainfall.

iii. Natural Siphon Rain Gauge: These are most widely adopted by IMD (Indian Metrological Department).
Adopted as standard in IS: 5235:1969. This is a Telemetering type Rain Gauge.

 Radar Measurement of Rainfall: This is one of the most accurate method of rainfall measurement. In
this method the radar emits an electromagnetic wave which are interrupted by rain-drops and the
reflected waves are received back by the instrument. Wavelength of the spectrum used in this case
ranges from 3 cm to 10 cm. For observing details of heavy storm, 10 cm wavelength is used whereas for
light rain 5 cm wavelength is used.

 World Metrological Organisation (WMO) recommendations for Rain Gauge network:

IRRIGATION ENGINEERING | Precipitation PAGE 5

 Download Testbook

i. For temperate or tropical region in flat terrains number of rain gauge stations desired are 1 per
600 to 900 km2.

ii. For mountainous region, number of stations recommended are 1 per 100 to 250 km2.

iii. For polar region, number of stations desired are 1 per 1500 to 10000 km2.

 Recommendation of IMD:

i. For plane region, 1 station per 520 km2.

ii. For hilly region, 1 station per 130 km2.

Design of Rain Gauge Network

 Optimum number of Rain Gauge Stations (N):

Here,

E = Allowable percentage error

Cv = Coefficient of variation expressed as percentage of existing station

Here,

p' = Average precipitation

σ = Standard deviation

Here,

pi = Precipitation magnitude observed in ith station

n = Number of observations

IMD recommends that at least 10% of the total number of optimum rain gauge stations should be
recording type rain gauges.

IRRIGATION ENGINEERING | Precipitation PAGE 6

 Download Testbook

Determination of missing Data

i. When average rainfall data of each year is within 10% of the average rainfall then missing data of station
x will be given by:

Here,

px = Rainfall data for the station x (station x is the station whose rainfall data was missing).

n = Number of rainfall station under observation

p1, p2, p3… = Amount of precipitation occurred on the given station

ipi = Amount of precipitation occurred at ith station.

ii. When average rainfall of any of the station differs by more than 10% of the average value of rainfall of
the stations under consideration then missing rainfall data of a given year for the station x will be given
by:

Here,

Nx = Average rainfall of previous years at station x.

Ni = Average rainfall of previous years on ith station.

Rest of the notations have same meaning as described in previous formula.

Determination of Mean Rainfall

 Arithmetic Mean Method: It is an approximate method and should be used for rough calculations only.

 Thiessen Polygon Method: In this method whole plan area is divided in to regular geometric figures
with only one station in each figure as shown and mean rainfall is calculated using given formula (This
method provides more accurate results than arithmetic mean method):

IRRIGATION ENGINEERING | Precipitation PAGE 7

 Download Testbook

 Isohyetal Method: Isohyet is a line joining places of equal rainfall intensity. In this method, a map of
isohyet contours of equal interval is prepared and area enclosed between two isohyets is measured using
planimeter, then using given formula average rainfall is determined (This method is considered to be the
best method for mean rainfall calculation):

Representing Rainfall Data

 Mass Curve of Rainfall: It is the plot of accumulated rainfall against time. With the help of mass curve
data regarding duration, magnitude, intensity, variation etc. of the rainfall can be obtained.

IRRIGATION ENGINEERING | Precipitation PAGE 8

 Download Testbook

Double mass curve is used to check consistency of the records.

 Hyetograph: It is the plot of intensity of rainfall against time. It is derived from mass curve and is
represented by bar graphs. (For example, rainfall intensity in mm/hour on y-axis and time duration in
hours on y-axis):

 Point Rainfall: It is also called station rainfall which can be reported as daily, hourly, monthly yearly etc.
It is represented as plot of magnitude vs time in form of bar charts.

 Depth Area Duration Curve (DAD curve): It is the distribution characteristic of depth-area relationship. It
is an exponential curve:

Here,

p’ = Average depth of rainfall in cm over an area A km2.

po = Highest amount of rainfall in cm at storm centre.

k and n are constants depending on the catchment area.

IRRIGATION ENGINEERING | Precipitation PAGE 9

 Download Testbook

Maximum Depth Area Duration Curve for a given duration D is prepared by assuming the area distribution
of rainfall for small duration to be similar to the total storm. This procedure is repeated for various storms
and maximum depth area duration curve is obtained. In this way a family of envelop curves of maximum
depth vs area, with duration as third parameter is obtained. This curve is called DAD curve.

 Intensity Duration Frequency Curve (IDF): Rainfall in a place can be completely defined with the help of
its duration, occurrence frequency and its intensity. Equation of IDF curve:

Here,

p = Rainfall intensity in cm/hour.

T = Return Period or frequency of rainfall of given intensity in a year

tr = Duration of rain in hours.

A, B and n are constants for a given catchment area.

IRRIGATION ENGINEERING | Precipitation PAGE 10