Chapter 2

Precipitation
2.1 Introduction
• Precipitation denotes all forms of water that reach the
earth from the atmosphere.
• The usual forms are rainfall, snowfall, hail. Frost, and
dew.
• Rainfall being predominant form of precipitation causing
stream flow, especially flood flow in the majority of
rivers
• Magnitude of precipitation varies with time and space
• Study of precipitation forms a major portion of the
subject of hydrometeorology
For precipitation to form:
i. The atmosphere must have moisture.
ii. There must be sufficient nuclei present to aid
condensation.
iii. Weather conditions must be good for condensation of
water vapor to take places and
iv. The products of condensation must reach the earth.
The precipitation at a place and its form depend upon a
number of meteorological factors, such as wind,
temperature, humidity and pressure in the volume region
enclosing the clouds and the ground surface at a given
place.
2.2 Forms of Precipitation
Forms of precipitation are
 Rain
 Snow
 Drizzle
 Glaze
 Sleet
 Hail

Rain
• Principle form of precipitation
• Rainfall (precipitation) in the form of water drops of sizes (>0.5mm)
• Max size of raindrop is about 6mm
On the basic of its intensity, rainfall is classified as:

Snow
• another important form of precipitation.
• consists of ice crystals which usually combine to form flakes
• initial density varying from 0.06-0.15g/cm3 (avg: 0.1g. cm3)
Drizzle
• fine sprinkle of numerous water droplets of size < 0.5 mm and intensity < 1mm/h
• drops are so small that appear to float in the air
Glaze
• rain or drizzle comes on contact with cold ground at around 0ºC, the waterdrops
freeze to form an ice coating called glaze or freezing rain
Sleet
• frozen raindrops of transparent grains which form when rain falls through air at
subfreezing temperatures
Hail
• showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or lumps of ice of size more
than 8mm
• occur in violent thunderstorms in which vertical currents are very strong
2.3 Weather systems for precipitation
• For the formation of clouds and subsequent precipitation, it is
necessary that the moist air masses cool to form condensation
• Accomplished by adiabatic cooling of moist air through a process of
being lifted to higher altitudes
• Some of terms and processes connected with the weather systems
associated with precipitation are
• Front
• interface between two distinct air masses
• warm air mass and cold air mass meet, the warmer air mass is lifted over the
colder one with the formation of a front
• ascending warmer air cools adiabatically with the consequent formation of
clouds and precipitation
Cyclone
• A large low pressure region with circular wind motion
• Tropical cyclone (hurricane, typhoon) : wind system with an intensely strong
depression
• Extratropical cyclone (strong counter-clockwise wind circulation in the
northern hemisphere)
• Magnitude of precipitation and wind velocity are low, duration of precipitation
is longer and areal extent is larger
Anticyclone
• High pressure, large areal extent, weather is clam at Centre, clockwise wind
circulation, moderate wind speed, outer edges, cloudy & precipitation exist
• Convective precipitation
• precipitation a packet of air which is warmer then the surrounding air
due to localized heating rises because of its lesser density
• depending upon moisture, thermal and other conditions light showers
to thunderstorms can be expected
• areal extent of rain is small (dia: 10km)
• Orographic precipitation
• Moist air masses get lifted up[ to higher altitudes due to the presence
of mountain barriers and cooling, condensation and precipitation
• Mountain ranges, windward slopes have heavy precipitation and
leeward slopes light rainfall
2.5 Measurement of Precipitation
• Precipitation is expressed in terms of depth to which
rainfall water would stand on an area if all the rain were
collected on it.
• Precipitation is collected and measured in a rain gauge.
The rain gauge may be broadly classified into two types.
(pluviometer, ombrometer and hyetometer)
• A rain gauge essentially consists of a cylindrical vessel
assembly kept in open to collect rain
• Rainfall catch of rainguage is affected by its exposure
condition
For sitting raingauge the following considerations are
important
• The ground must be level and in the open and the instrument
must present a horizontal catch surface
• The gauge must be set as near the ground as possible to reduce
wind effects but it must be sufficiently high to prevent
splashing, flooding
• The instrument must be surrounded by an open fenced area of
at least 5.5m x 5.5m. No subject should be nearer to the
instrument than 30m or twice the height of the obstruction

• The rain gauge may be broadly classified into two types.

(1)Non-recording type rain gauge
(2)Recording type rain gauge
Nonrecording Gauges
• The non-recording type rain gauges are used for the
measurement of the amount of rainfall by collecting rain
water over a period of time.
• In a recording type rain gauge, the amount and
intensity of rainfall are recorded by an automatic
arrangement.
Recording gauges
Produce a continuous plot of rainfall against time and provide valuable data of
intensity and duration of rainfall for hydrological analysis of storms

Tipping bucket type

 30.5 cm size rain-gauge
 The catch from the funnel falls onto one pair of small buckets
 Buckets are balanced when 0.25 mm of rainfall collects in one bucket, it ticked and
brings the other one in position
 Water from tipped bucked is collected in a storage can
 Clockwork-driven chart
 Measured at regular intervals to provide total rainfall
 Gives data on the intensity of rainfall
 Suited for digitalizing of the output signal
Weighing-Bucket Type
 Catch from the funnel empties into bucket mounted on a weight scale
 Its contents are recorded on a clock-work –driven chart
 Has capacity to run for as long as one week
 Gives a plot of the accumulated rainfall against elapsed time (mass curve of
rainfall)
Natural-syphon type (Float-type gauge)
 Rainfall collected by funnel shaped collector is led into a float chamber
causing a float to raise
 Float raise, a pen attached to float through a lever system records the elevation
of float on rotation drum driven by a clock work mechanism
 A syphon arrangement empties the float chamber when float has reached a
pre-set maximum
Telemetering raingauge
 Contain electronic units to transmit the data on rainfall to a base station both at
regular intervals and on interrogation
 Almost use in gathering rainfall data from mountainous and inaccessible
places
Radar measurement of rainfall
 A powerful instrument for measuring the areal extent, location and movement
of rain storms
 The amount of rainfall over large areas can be determined through the radar
with a good degree of accuracy
 Meteorological radars operate with wavelength ranging from 3-10 cm (5 &
10)
 Heavy flood producing rains, 10 cm radar is used
 Light rain & snow 5 cm radar is used
2.6 Rain gauge Network
Since the catching area of a raingauge is very small compared to the
areal extent of a storm, to get representative picture of storm over the
catchment the number of raingauges should be as large as possible
(catchment area per gauge should be small)

Economic consideration to a large extent and other considerations

(topography, accessibility) to some extent restrict the number of gauges
to be maintained
World meteorological organization (WMO)

• 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 zones

• 1 station for 1500 – 10000 km2 depending on the feasibility
2.7 Preparation of Data
• Before using the rainfall records of a station, it is necessary to first
check the data for continuity and consistency
• The continuity of a record may be broken with missing data due to
many reasons such as damage or fault in raingauge during a period
• The missing data can be estimated by using the data of the
neighboring stations
• In these calculations the normal rainfall is used as a standard of
comparison
• The normal rainfall is the average value of rainfall at a particular data,
month or year over a specified 30 year period
• The 30 year normal are recomputed every decade
• Thus the term normal annual precipitation at station A means the
average annual precipitation at A based on a specified 30 year record
Test for consistency of record
Common causes for inconsistency of record are
i. Shifting of a raingauge station to a new location
ii. Neighborhood of the station undergoing a marked change
iii. Change in the ecosystem due to calamities, such as forest
fires, land slides
iv. Occurrence of observational error from a certain date
Checking is done by double-mass curve technique (based
on the principle that each recorded data comes from the
same parent population, they are consistent)
 A group of 5 – 10 stations in the neighborhood of the problem station X is

selected
 The data of annual (monthly or seasonal mean) rainfall the station X and also

the average rainfall of the group of base stations covering a long period is

arranged in the reverse chronological order (i.e the latest records the first

entry and the oldest record as the last entry in the list.
 The Accumulated precipitation of the station X (i.e. )and the accumulated

values of the average of the group of base stations (i.e. ) are calculated

starting from the latest record

 Values of are plotted against for various consecutive time period
 A decided break in the slope of the resulting plot indicates a change

in the precipitation regime of station X

 The precipitation values at station X beyond the period of change in

regime is corrected by using the relation

Where

= corrected precipitation at any time period t1 at station X

= original recorded precipitation at time period t1at station X

=corrected slope of the double mass curve

= original slope of the double mass curve

 The older records are brought to the new regime of the station
 The more homogeneous the base station records are, the more
accurate will be the corrected values at station X
 A change in the slope is normally taken as significant only where
it persists for more than five years
 Double mass curve us helpful in checking systematic arithmetical
errors in transferring rainfall data from one record to another
 (18396,17060)

(6251, 6399)

(588, 612)
 2.8 Presentation of Rainfall Data
Mass curve of rainfall
(float type & weighing bucket type gauges)
 A plot of the accumulated precipitation against time
plotted in chronological order
 Useful in extraction the information on the duration and
magnitude of a storm
 Intensities at various time intervals in a storm can be
obtained by the slope of the curve

For non-recording rain-gauge

 Prepared from knowledge of the approximate beginning
and end of a storm and by using the mass curves of
adjacent recording gauge stations as a guide
hyetograph
• Plot of the intensity of rainfall against the time interval
• Represent as a bar chart
• Representing the characteristic of storm & important in
the development of design storms to predict extreme
floods
• Area represent the total precipitation received in the
period
• Time interval used depends on
• Urban drainage problems small durations are used
• Flood flow computations in larger catchments the intervals are
of about 6h
Point rainfall (station rainfall)
• Refer to the rainfall data of a station
• Data can be listed as daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal
or annual
• Plot bar diagram (magnitude & chronological time)
• Is not convenient for discerning a trend in the rainfall as
there will be considerable variations in the rainfall
values leading to rapid changes in the plot
• Trend is discerned by the method of moving averages
(moving means)
 Moving average
(central simple moving average)

• A technique for smoothening out the high frequency

fluctuations of a time series and to enable the trend
• Window of time range m years is selected
• Average of data for m years is calculated and placed in
the middle year if the range m
• Moved sequentially one time unit at a time and mean of
the m terms is determined at each window location
• m can be 3 or more years (odd value)
• Large size of range m, greater smoothening
(I) Years
(a) less than 20% of the mean
6 years (1952, 1960, 1969, 1972,
1975, 1978)
(b) More than the mean
(1950, 1951, 1955, 1963, 1964, 1965,
1966, 1967, 1968,1970,
1976,1977,1978)
No apparent trend
2.9 Mean precipitation over an area
• Hydrological analysis requires a knowledge of the
rainfall over an area (catchment)
• To convert the point rainfall values at various stations
into an average value over a catchment
• Arithmetical mean method
• Thiessen polygon method
• Isohyet method
Arithmetical–mean method
• rainfall measured at various stations in the catchment
show little variation, the average precipitation over the
catchment area is

P1, P2, ..Pi,…Pn are the rainfall values in a given

period in N stations within the catchment
Thiessen-mean method
Weightage on the basis of an area closest to the station
Procedure of determining the weighing area is
• Consider a catchment are containing three raingauge stations
• Three stations are outside but neighborhood
• Catchment is drawn to scale and position of six stations
marked on its
• Station 1 to 6 are joined to form a network of triangle are
drawn
• These bisectors form a polygon a round each station
• Boundary of catchment, if it cuts the bisectors is taken as outer
limit of the polygon
• For station 1, the bounding polygon is abcd, for 2, kade is taken
• These bounding polygons are called Thiessen Polygons
• Thiessen polygons are determined either with a
planimeter or by using an overlay grid.
• Average rainfall over the catchments is
Isohyetal method
• Line joining points of equal rainfall magnitude
• Catchment area is drawn to scale and the raingauge
stations are marked
• Recorded values for average P is to be determined are
then marked on the plot at appreciate stations
• Outside station are also considered
• Are drawn by considering point rainfall as guides and
interpolation between them by the eye
• Procedure is similar to the drawing of elevation contours
based on plot levels
 • Area between two adjacent
isohyets are determined with a
planimeter
• If the isohyets go out of
catchment, catchment
boundary is used as bounding
line
• Average value of the rainfall
indicated by two isohyets is
assumed to be acting over the
inter-isohyets
Mean precipitation over the catchment area
area is
2.10 Depth-area-duration relationships

Area distribution characteristics of a storm is reflected in

its depth-area relationship
Depth-area relation
• For a rainfall of a given duration, the avg depth
decrease with the area

where = average depth in cm over an area

= highest amount of rainfall in cm at the storm centre
K & A = constants for a given region
Maximum depth-area duration curves (DAD)
Hydrological studies involving estimation of severe
floods, it is necessary to have information on the
maximum amount of rainfall of various durations
occurring over various sizes of area
• Severemost rainstorms have occurred are considered
• Isohyetal maps & mass curve of storm are complied
• Noted mass cure of rainfall, various durations &
maximum depth of rainfall
• Max depth area curve for duration D is prepared by
assuming the area distribution of rainfall for small
duration to be similar to the total storm
• Repeat for different storms & envelop curve of DAD is
obtained
Average depth denotes depth averaged
over the area
Max: depth decrease with the area,
max depth increase with the duration
Preparation of DAD involves
Computational effort and requires
meteorological and topographical
information
DAD curves are essential to develop
design storms for use in computing the
design flood in hydrological design of
major structures such as dams
2.11 Frequency of point rainfall

• For floods, the probability of occurrence of particular

extreme rainfall(24 h max rainfall) will be of importance
• Information is obtained by frequency analysis of the
point-rainfall data