Precipitation: Lecture Note Civil Engineering1
Precipitation: Lecture Note Civil Engineering1
Precipitation: Lecture Note Civil Engineering1
2. PRECIPITATION
2.1 Introduction
Precipitation is that part of atmospheric moisture, which reaches the earth's surface in
different forms. Hydrologists start working when the precipitation reaches the ground.
This connects hydrology with meteorology. There is a great variation of precipitation in
space and time. In India, atmospheric moisture (or weather system) causes good
precipitation during June-October and nearly dry weather during the remaining periods.
Some of the precipitation that might get intercepted while reaching the ground by trees
and buildings and evaporates back is called the initial loss. The other part meets
requirements like depression storage and infiltrates into the ground. The excess rainfall
flows in streams to large water bodies. Factors like soil-type, vegetation, geology and
topography of the area largely determine the quantity of rainfall excess available as
stream flow from the precipitable water.
Nearly one-fourth of the total precipitation that falls on land reaches large water bodies as
direct runoff. The balance three-fourths of water returns back to the atmosphere at
different times as evaporation.
The essential requirements for precipitation to occur are: (i) moisture in the atmosphere,
(ii) presence of nuclei around which condensation of vapour takes place, (iii) dynamic
cooling responsible for condensation of water vapour and (iv) precipitation product must
reach the ground in some form. In the atmosphere, condensation nuclei are available in
plenty. Dust particles and smoke wastes form excellent nuclei. When such a nucleus
collects freezing moisture from the cloud and grows to a size greater than 1 mm, it forms
a rain drop and falls. Years back, cloud seeding was attempted for making artificial rain
in India. Cloud seeding should be attempted only when there is sufficient moisture in the
atmosphere and dynamic cooling exists. In the process, artificial nuclei like portland
cement, salt powder, carbon-dioxide powder, ice-powder, clay or silver iodide powder is
introduced into the cloud by aircraft, balloon, rocket, projectile and other devices. Due to
rapid industrialization, cloud seeding is no more attempted. Owing to the great variability
of meteorological processes, cloud seeding has so far provided inconsistent results.
Location of a region with respect to general circulation, latitude, topography, orographic
features and distance from moisture source are the responsible factors for rainfall to
occur. Orographic barriers force a precipitating system to rain on its windward side and
the leeward side receives less precipitation. Such precipitation distributions are noticed in
western Ghat mountain ranges and at the south of Himalayan ranges of India. West of
Western Ghats and the north-eastern states of India usually receive heavy precipitation
due to the orographic features. Precipitation decreases with altitude and, therefore, we
can say that higher is the altitude lesser is the precipitation. When the prevailing wind
moves over ocean containing warm water, it picks up high moisture. This gives very high
precipitation.
During low pressure time, India and the adjoining areas experience such type of heavy
precipitations. While other conditions remain same, a place far away from any coast
receives less precipitation than one closer to sea. Location of a place with respect to the
prevailing wind is very effective in weather systems. Formation of a desert in western
part of India and the floods occurring frequently in north-eastern part are part of this
system. Presence of orographic features and oceans adds to the advantage.
Here precipitation measurement, network design, analysis and presentation of
precipitation data are discussed to the extent a partitioning civil engineer dealing with
water resource projects ought to know.
2.2 Forms of Precipitation
Any product of atmospheric water must reach the surface of earth after condensation.
However, fog and frost are not part of precipitation as they are not falling moisture. Some
common forms of precipitation explained below are: (i) rain, (ii) snow, (iii) drizzle, (iv)
glaze, (v) sleet, (vi) hail and (vii) dew.
(i) Rain: When precipitation reaches the surface of earth in the form of droplets of water,
we call it rain. The size of drops varies from 0.5 mm to 6 mm as drops larger than this
size are found to breakup during their fall in the air. Rain is considered as light if
intensity of rainfall is up to 2.5 mm/h, moderate from 2.5 to 7.5 mmlh and heavy over 7.5
mmlh.
(ii) Snow: It is precipitation in the form of ice-crystals, normally hexagonal in shape.
Snow reaches the earth's surface either separately or combines together to form flakes.
The density of snow is usually 0.10 glcm3, which means that 10 cm of snowfall is
equivalent to 1.0 cm of rainfall.
(iii) Drizzle: Drizzle is defined as water droplets of size less than 0.5 mm. It reaches the
ground with intensity less than 1.00 mm/h. These water droplets are so light that they
appear to be floating in air.
(iv) Glaze: It is the drizzle, which freezes immediately in contact with cold objects of the
earth's surface.
(v) Sleet: Where rain falls through air of subfreezing temperature, the drops freeze to
form grains of ice, called sleet. Sometimes snow and rain precipitates simultaneously.
The rain drops under this circumstance are half frozen.
(vi) Hail: It is the precipitating rain in the form of any irregular form of ice with size
ranging from 5.0 mm to 50 mm or above. Cumulonimbus convective. Clouds with strong
vertical currents are responsible for the formation of hail. The densities of hails are
normally 0.8 gmlcm3• While falling they combine together to form bigger sizes.
(vii) Dew: During nights when surface of the objects on earth cools by radiation, the
moisture present in atmosphere condenses on the surface of these objects forming water
droplets called dew.
In India, heavy precipitation in Himalayan region and at the western coast are mainly due
to orographic features associated with the south west wind carrying sufficient quantity of
moisture, while passing over Arabian sea. Orographic precipitation gives medium to high
intensity rainfall and continues for longer duration.
An anticyclone is an area of high pressure in which winds tend to blow spirally outward
in clockwise direction in the northern hemisphere and anticlockwise in southern
hemisphere. Weather is normally calm and such anticyclones are not associated with rain.
(iv) Thunder Storms
An air mass which moves from sea to land gets increased friction over land. These air
masses rise gradually as they move inland, giving rise to condensation and precipitation
over a limited area. Winter rainfall in southern part of India and Indonesia are mainly due
to this process. Sometimes thunder storms result in very intense rainfall.
2.4 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 millimeters and tenths in metric system and in inches and hundredths in FPS
system. Precipitation data is a basic input for the study of any water resources system and
should be measured extensively. Due to its great variability in space and time this natural
parameter is recorded continuously. Rainfall is collected and measured in instruments
called rain gauges. If snow is the form of precipitation, then it is collected in snow-
gauges, melted and its water equivalent is recorded. A gauge in its simplest form is a
horizontal circular opening aperture of known cross sectional area in the form of a
cylindrical vessel. The circular opening leads its catch to a collecting and measuring jar.
Three types of instruments generally used for measurement of rainfall are: (i) non-
recording gauge, (ii) recording gauge and (iii) weather radars.
2.3.1. Non-Recording Rain Gauge
Various types of non-recording rain gauges are available, for instance, A Symons type or
a Standard gauge. The two types of gauges are alike but differ in their size proportion and
material. A standard gauge is made up of reinforced fiberglass polyester material of
different combinations of collectors and bottles. Details of installation of a standard type
of rain gauge is shown in Fig.2.3
The circular collector opening has an area of either 100 or 200 cm 2 from which rain
enters into the receiving vessel through a funnel. The collectors are interchangeable. Top
of the circular opening is placed at a standard height of 30 cm above ground level. The
metal container should be fixed to a concrete block of 60 cm x 60 cm x 60 cm as shown
in Fig. 2.3.
The rain catch collected in the bottle is taken out and poured into a graduated measuring
glass jar (chosen accordingly for 100 cm or 200 cm collector), which gives directly the
depth of rainfall for the day. Degree of accuracy of a graduated jar is 0.1mm. If
precipitation on a day is very heavy then more readings should be taken and summed up
to give the rainfall depth for the day along with its final observation taken. Such a system
can also be used for snow measurement but the snow should be melted to arrive at the
equivalent depth of water recorded. This system needs the service of an attending
observer who monitors the gauge at regular intervals, usually daily and hourly during
continuous and heavy precipitations.
Since the above system does not record rain but simply collects, it is called a non-
recording gauge. The ratio of volume of water collected in cm3 divided by the area of
opening of the gauge mouth in cm2 gives the depth of rainfall for the day. If any non-
standard measuring jar is used, then it should be calibrated to give directly the depth of
rainfall in centimeters and millimeters.
2.3.2. Recording Type Rain-Gauges
These rain gauges give a continuous record of rainfall at a place over time. Such gauges
give all the required information ofa storm like the onset and cessation of rain, i.e.,
duration of the storm, intensity and the cumulative rainfall. The recording gauges are
commonly installed along with a non-recording type gauge for the purpose of checking
and calibration. Many types of recording gauges are available in the market. One may use
a tipping bucket type, weighing bucket type or syphon type gauge on the consideration of
their merits and demerits to suit the conditions prevailing over the site. When such a
gauge is fitted with an electronic device to transmit rainfall data to a base station then it is
known as Telemetering gauge.
A. Tipping Bucket Type: A Stevens tipping bucket type of rain gauge consists of a
200 mm collector that directs the rain water through a funnel into a twocompartmental
bucket. 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
Ideally, a basin should have as many numbers of gauges possible to give a clear
representative picture of the aerial distribution of the precipitation. Factors like economy,
topography, accessibility and rainfall variability govern the number 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. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recommends certain densities of
gauges to be followed for different types of catchments.
Table 1.Israel has the highest network density in the world with one gauge
Regions Minimum area for one Area to be covered
station under ideal under difficult condition
condition in sq. km. per station in sq. km.
1. Flat regions of temperate 600-900 900-3000
Mediterranean and tropical zones.
2. Mountainous regions of temperate 100-250
Mediterranean and tropical zones. 250-1000
3. Small mountainous regions with 25
irregular precipitation.
4. Arid and polar Zones. 1500-10000
Optimum Number of Rain Gauge Stations
Records from all the existing gauges of a basin help to fix the optimum number of
stations. The following statistical analysis helps to obtain number of gauges for a basin
optimally on the basis of an assigned percentage of error in estimating the mean aerial
rainfall.
2
Cv
N=
[ ]Ep
WhereN is the optimal number of stations, Ep is the allowable percentage of error in the
estimation of mean aerial rainfall, Cu is the coefficient of variation of the rainfall from the
existing stations in percentage. Coefficient of variation can be calculated in the following
steps from the data of existing n stations.
(i) Calculate the mean of rainfall 1
from the equation;
Pav =
1
P
σ n−1=
√ (n−1)
∑ ( Pi−P av )2
If the allowable percent of error in estimating the mean rainfall is taken higher, then a
basin will require fewer numbers of gauges and vice-versa. The allowable percentage of
error Epis normally taken as 10%. While computing the value of Cuif its value comes 4(ss
than 10%, we can assume the existing stations to be sufficient for the basin. In case N
>n, the additional stations required for the basin can be found as (N - n). Annual rainfall
values are normally used in the above analysis. Additional stations are to be established
at the appropriate locations giving an even distribution over the basin.
Ideal location for rain gauge stations
While setting up any rain Gauge station the following points should be noted.
(i) The site should be on a level ground, i.e., slopping ground, hill tops or hill slopes
are not suitable.
(ii) The site should be an open space
(iii) Horizontal distance between the rain gauge and the nearest objects should be
twice the height of the objects.
(iv) Site should be away from continuous wind forces.
(v) Other meteorological instruments and the fencing of the site should maintain the
step (iii) above.
(vi) The site should be easily accessible. (vii) The gauge should be truly vertical.
(vii) Ten percent of total number of rain gauge stations of any basin should be self-
recording.
(viii) The observer must visit the site regularly to ensure its proper readiness for
measurement
Precipitation measurements are susceptible to the following errors, which can be (a) in
measurement, (b) mistakes in recording, (c) instrumental errors, (d) initial loss in wetting
the gauge (which is equal to 0.25 mm per precipitation or may be 25 mm/year), (e) error
due to rain drop splash, (f) evaporation from the gauge and (g) loss of 1.5% of rainfall if
gauge is inclined 10 degree from its true vertical position.
Example 2.1: A sub-basin has six numbers of rain gauges. Annual rainfall recorded by
the gauges is given below. Considering 10% error in the estimation of mean annual
rainfall, calculate optimum number of gauges required for the sub-basin and check if the
present network is sufficient.
Rain gauge Name A B C D E F
Annual rainfall (cm) 102 77 84 53 66 80
Example 2.2: A sub-basin with area of 1038 sq. km has 7 stations. The normal annual
rainfall depths for all the seven stations are given below. Determine the optimum number
of rain gauge stations to be established in the basin if it is desired to limit the error in the
mean value of rainfall to 10%. Indicate how you are going to distribute the additional
rain gauge stations (if required). Is it possible to have zero percent error in the estimate of
the mean value?
Nx
ai =∑
nN i
2.5.3 Regression Method
A multiple linear regression of the form
Px =a o +a1 P1 +a 2 P 2 +. ..+a n Pn may be established.
The coefficients ao, a1, a2, . . ., an can be calculated by least square method. The equation
can be used to compute rainfall Px of the missing station. Use of this method is
advantageous over the previous two and can be effectively used when a digital computer
is available at a site. A random error component ε ×Syxmay be added to equation above if
large amount of missing data is to be estimated, where EI is the normal random number
with zero mean and unit standard deviation. It can be selected from random number
tables given in any standard mathematical book. Syxis the standard error of estimate. The
standard error of estimate can be estimated from the equation
n
S yx =
√∑ (i=1
Y i−Y ei )2
in which yeiis the estimated value of Yifor given Xi and n is the number of data. Addition
of the last term Et x SyXmaintains the standard deviation of the estimated value of Pxclose
to the observed standard deviation. Use of the above method is not popular because of the
nature of computations involved.
2.5.4 Inverse Distance (US Weather Service) Method
In this method, a rectangular coordinate system is superimposed over the map marked
with rain gauge station in such a way that the origin (0, 0) represents the missing station
as shown in Fig. 2.8. The surrounding index stations lie within the quadrants to the point
for which rainfall is to be estimated. The distance of index stations from the missing
station gives a weightage of the station by which missing rainfall is estimated. The
following relation may be used.
n
∑ W i Pi
Px = i=1n
∑ Wi
i=1
1
W i= 2
Where: D ; D2 =(X2+Y2) is the distance of the station I in X and Y
coordinates taking missing rainfall station at (0,0) position. This is the most acceptable
method and is widely used for determining the missing rainfall for any scientific analysis.
However, the limitation is that it estimates missing rainfall between the highest and
lowest values of the index stations.
Other methods using various numerical interpolations of Isohyetal method, Thiessen
polygon method, Station-year-method, Graphical method and Rational method have their
own limitations for computation of the missing data. Estimation of missing daily rainfall
data is less reliable than annual values and such estimates should be subjected to further
statistical analysis. In plain terrain any of the above methods can be suitably used but in
hilly regions, the normal ratio method or linear regression method can be more
effectively used for better results.
Fig. 2.8.
Example 2.4: In a river basin, a station A was inoperative during a storm, while stations
B, C and D surrounding A were in operation, registering 12.3, 14.8 and 11.9 cm of
precipitation. Mean annual precipitation at the four stations A, B, C and D are 1290,
1510, 1680 and 1375 mm respectively. Estimate the missing storm precipitation of station
A by all the methods you know. The coordinates of B, C and D are (6, -4), (8, -6) and (-
4, 4), respectively, y where as the coordinate of A is (0, 0) as shown in Fig. 3.12.
Example 2.5: Normal rainfall of 6 rain gauge stations A1, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 are
122, 98, 72, 116, 135 and 110 cms respectively. During a particular storm station A2 was
inoperative due to some mechanical defect. The locations of the stations on a map are
given in Fig. 2.9 and bracket terms give the rainfalls. Calculate the missing rainfall of
station A2 by all the methods and compare the results.
Fig 2.6
Example 2.5: Annual rainfall of station A and the average annual rainfall of five
surrounding stations from 1996 to 1977 are given below. Check the consistency of data
of station A. If data is found inconsistent, then correct the inconsistent data.
Solution
A graph is plotted taking the cumulative annual rainfall of the five surrounding stations in
abscissa and the cumulative annual rainfall of the station A in ordinate. The consecutive
points are joined by a straight line. Deviation of the straight line plot is noticed from the
year 1983. Slope of the line is found as 0.756. Therefore correction is applied to all the
data from 1983 to 1977.
are lost in the moving average process. In hydrology a moving average of more than 5 is
usually not applied as some of the cyclic trends associated with the data are smoothened
out. A plot of moving average is shown in Fig. 2.10
When the plot of rainfall intensity with time is presented in the form of bar graphs then
such a graph is known as hyetograph (Fig. 2.11). The plot is very useful for flood studies
and calculation of rainfall loss indices.
2.7.4 Intensity-Duration-Frequency Curves
An intensity-duration and frequency curve is a three parameter curve in which duration is
taken on x-axis, intensity on y-axis and the return period or frequency as the third
parameter. By fixing the return period of say 10-, 50-, 100-years or any other period, a
particular curve between intensity and duration can be obtained for the area. Through
such a curve, an exponential equation of the following order can be fit.
4 −d
I=CT ( D+b )
many methods available in literature for computation of average precipitation over the
basin. However, depending on the accuracy and objective of the analysis any of the
followings methods can be used:
(i) Arithmetic average, (ii) Thiessen polygon, (iii) Isohyetal, (iv) Grid point, (v)
Orographic or (vi) Isopercental method.
Other methods available in the literature include the triangular mean weight, trend
surface analysis, reciprocal distance square, modified polygon, analysis of variance and
the double Fourier series. These methods are not extensively used in hydrology. The
rigorous mathematical calculations involved in these methods do not support the
accuracy achieved in arriving at the mean aerial rainfall over a basin.
2.8.1 Arithmetic Mean Method
This method is suitably applied for a basin where the gauges are uniformly distributed
and the individual gauge catches do not vary much from the mean. The basin should be a
reasonably flat area. The assumption made is that all gauges weigh equally. This method
gives fairly good results if the topographic influences on precipitation and aerial
representativeness are considered while selecting the gauge site. It is the simplest form in
which the average depth of precipitation over the basin is obtained by taking simple
arithmetic mean of all the gauged amounts within the basin
P 1 + P2 +. . .+ P n 1 n
Pav = = ∑ Pi
n n i=1
Where P1, P2 . . . Pn are the precipitation recorded by n number of gauges located within
the basin. This method gives a rough estimate of the average precipitation. It does not
account for the topographic and other influences. For use of this method, no gauge station
located outside the boundary of the watershed should be considered.
2.8.2Thiessen Polygon Method
In this method, weightage is given to all the measuring gauges on the basis of their aerial
coverage on the map, thus eliminating the 'discrepancies in their spacing over the basin.
All the stations in and around the basin are considered and a linear variation in the
precipitation between two gauge stations is assumed. Procedure for delineating area for
each station in the basin is described below.
(a) All the gauges in and around the basin are accurately marked on a map drawn to scale.
(b) Consecutive stations are joined by dotted straight lines, forming triangles.
(c) Perpendicular bisectors are drawn to these dotted lines such that the bisectors form a
polygon around each station. For a basin having large number of stations, the
approach should be to start from one end of the map and traverse to the other end
gradually forming polygons. The boundary of the map and the perpendicular bisectors
cutting them form polygons for the periphery stations are shown in Fig. 2.13, while
for inner stations, the bisectors only from the polygons.
(d) Each station on the map is thus enclosed by a polygon. A polygon represents an area
for which the station rainfall is the representative.
(e) Area of each polygon is measured by planimetering. Sum of the areas of all the
polygons must be equal to the total area of the basin.
(f) Thiessen weights are computed by dividing the area of each polygon by the total area
of the basin. Thus, sum of Thiessen weights for all stations should be equal to unity.
If there are seven stations in and around the basin then seven thiessen polygons are
drawn. Sum of all the seven Thiessen weights must be equal to unity.
(g) The average precipitation is computed from the relation
A P + A P +.. .+ An P n
Pav = 1 1 2 2
A 1 + A 2 +.. .+ An P n
OR
P =W P +W P +. . .+W P
av 1 1 2 2 n n
Where P1, P2, . . . Pn represents precipitation t stations 1, 2, 3, . . . , n and A1, A2, . . . , An
represents the area of polygons representing the corresponding stations, A is the total area
of basin which is the sum of all the polygons and W1, W2, . . . , Wn= An/A such that
W1+W2+. . . +Wn= 100.
polygons are measured. This method is popularly applied to 'l11ost of the field problems.
2.8.3 Isohyetal Method
This method gives more accurate results of the average rainfall of a basin. An .
experienced analyst takes care of the orographic features and storm characteristics while
drawing contours of equal rainfall depths of a basin. The resulting map can represent the
actual rainfall pattern of the storm over the watershed. An Isohyet is a line joining points
of equal rainfall magnitude on a map. Steps in determining the average precipitation of
an area are given below.
(i) A map of the basin is drawn to scale.
(ii) All gauge stations in and around the basin are accurately located on the map.
(iii) Depth of precipitation recorded at each station are marked on the map.
(iv) Isohyets are drawn by eye approximation interpolating the distances between
stations on consideration of orographic, storm characteristics and other factors
that affect the rainfall variability at the place. They follow the principles of
elevation contours drawn on a map. Isohyets do not cross each other. Over a large
area, all isohyets form closed contours. Closely spaced isohyets’ contours indicate
that the precipitation gradient is more. Area bounded by the highest closed
contour represents the eye of a cyclonic storm.
(v) Area between successive isohyets within the basin is measured. (planimetered).
(vi) Average precipitation between two successive isohyets multiplied by the area
bounded by them should be computed for all isohyets covering the area.
(vii) Sum of all such products over the entire basin divided by the total area of the
basin gives average precipitation. This can be computed using the following
equation.
P +P P +P P +P
A 1 1 2 + A 2 2 3 +. ..+ A n n−1 n
2 2 2
Pav =
A 1 + A 2 +. ..+ A n
gage stations, one in each quadrant. Areal precipitation may then be determined by
computing the arithmetic mean using all gridpoint precipitation data.
where the weights Wi,j are the relative reciprocal square distances between the gridpoint
and the respective gage station.
(ix)If a semi-log graph paper is used with area plotted on log scale then the curve will
plot close to a straight line.
The resulting plot is the DAD curve for the region. DAD analysis requires all the
previous storm information and involves tremendous computational efforts. Use of
computers reduces the work load to a great extent. India Meteorological Department on
request can carry out DAD analysis for any portion of the country. Depending on the
availability of data DAD analysis for any region and for any other periods can be
prepared. DAD curves for 12-h, 1 and 2-day storms are shown in Fig. 2.15.
Interesting points to note from the graph are (a) when the area of the storm increases, the
depth of precipitation decreases (b) when the duration of the storm increases for the given
area, the depth of precipitation increases. Use of DAD graph is further discussed in the
flood chapter.
Example 2.8: From the isohyetal map shown in Fig. 2.14and the sub-areas between the
isohyets given in Example 2.7, prepare a DAD curve for the basin if the rain depths are
recorded from a 2-day storm.