RAINFALL DATA ANALYSIS

Evaluate rain
depth
consistency
record and make
correction using
double mass
curve method.
Types of Precipitation
Rainfall Characteristic
Calculate
Rain Data
1. Rainfall
2. Snow
3. Sleet
4. Hails
5. Dew
6. Mist
1. Depth
2. Duration
3. Intensity
4. Rainfall Frequency
Rainfall
Intensity
Rain
Average
Isohyetal
Method
Thiessen Polygon
Method
Arithmetical Mean
Method
Normal
Ratio
Quadrant
Methods
Plot Rain
Hyetograph
PRECIPITATION
is any dump or deposition in solid or liquid form
that originated from the atmosphere.
Most come from the sea.
occurs when water vapor cools.
When the air reaches saturation point (also
know as condensation point and dew point) the
water vapor condenses and forms tiny droplet of
water.
Precipitation form a 0.001% of the worlds water
resources
Types of Precipitation
HORIZONTAL PRECIPITATION
Water vapour become frozen near the surface
or directly on the surface
Example : dew and fog
VERTICAL PRECIPITATION
Water vapour become freezing on the air and
fall to the earth
Example : rain and snow
RAINFALL
Rain is the major from precipitation in the
form of water drops sizes greater than 0.5
mm.
The maximum sizes of rain drop is about 6
mm based on the intensity, rainfall is
classified as light rain (>2.5mm - 5mm/hr),
moderate rain (2.5 7 mm/hr) and heavy
rain (>7.5mm/hr)
Water vapor
Droplet Formed
Droplet Size Increasing
Through Condensation
(0.01 10 mm)
Droplets Have Been
Larger And Falling
Down (~0.1 mm)
Many Droplets Will
Be Diminished Terms
Of Size Through
Evaporation
Part Of Droplet
Adding Terms Of
Size Through
Collision And
Collection.
Rainfall
(0.1 3 mm)
Large Drop will
Break (3 5 mm)
Precipitation (Rain) Formation Process
CYCLONE RAIN
Stage 1 : An area of warm air meets and area of cold air
Stage 2 : The warm air is forced over the cold air.
Stage 3 : Where the air meets the warm air is cooled and
water vapour condenses
Stage 4 : Clouds form and precipitation occurs
CYCLONE RAIN
Hurricane & Tropical Cyclone Formation
Fully formed tropical cyclone with an eye, eyewall, and circulating rain bands
CONVECTIONAL RAIN
CONVECTIONAL RAIN/ HUJAN PEROLAKAN
Convectional precipitation results from the
heating of the earth's surface that causes
air to rise rapidly. As the air rises, it cools
and moisture condenses into clouds and
precipitation. This type of precipitation is
common in the prairie provinces.
Stage 1 : The sun heats the ground and warm air rises
Stage 2 : As the air rises it cools and water vapour condenses
to form clouds
Stage 3 : When the condensation point is reached large
cumulonimbus clouds are formed
Stage 4 : Heavy rain storms occur. These usually include
thunder and lightening due to the electrical charge
created by unstable conditions.
CONVECTIONAL RAIN/ HUJAN PEROLAKAN
OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION
Stage 1 : Warm wet air id forced to rise over high land
Stage 2 : As the air rises it cools and condenses. Clouds form
and precipitation occurs.
Stage 3 : The drier air descends and warms
Stage 4 : Any moisture in the air (e.g. cloud) evaporates
OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION results when warm moist
air of the ocean is forced to rise by large mountains. As
the air rises it cools, moisture in the air condenses and
clouds and precipitation result on the windward side of
the mountain while the leeward side receives very little
RAIN MEASUREMENT
RAIN MEASUREMENT
Placement of Rain Gauges
Gauges are affected by wind pattern, eddies, trees and
the gauge itself, therefore it is important to have the
gauge located and positioned properly.

1m above ground level is standard -
all gauges in a catchment should be the same height

2 to 4 times the distance away from an isolated object
(such as a tree or building) or in a forest a clearing
with the radius at least the tree height or place the
gauge at canopy level

Placement of Rain Gauges
shielded to protect gauge in windy sites
or if obstructions are numerous they will reduce the wind-
speed, turbulence and eddies.
Rain gauge with wind guards
Placement of Rain Gauges
For sloping ground the gauge should be placed with the
opening parallel to the ground
The rainfall catch volume (mm
3
) is then divided by the
opening area that the rain can enter
Number and Distribution of Gauges
Need to consider:
size of area
prevailing storm type
form of precipitation
topography
aspect
season
Number of gauges Size of area
2 16 hectares
3 40 hectares
10 8 km
2

15 16 km
2

50 160 km
2

300 1600 km
2

1000+ 16,000 km
2


Number of Gauges
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere
in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude
of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed
of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open
and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external
pressure. Snowflakes come in a variety of sizes and shapes.
Types which fall in the form of a ball due to melting and
refreezing, rather than a flake, are known as grapple , with ice
pellets and snow grains as examples of graupel. Snowfall
amount and its related liquid equivalent precipitation amount
are determined using a variety of different rain gauges.
Sleet refers to two distinct forms of
precipitation:
Rain and snow mixed, snow that partially
melts as it falls. (UK, Ireland and Canada)
Ice pellets, one of three forms of
precipitation in a US-style "wintry mix", the
other two being snow and freezing rain.
(US)
Sleet forms when rain passes through a cold layer of air
and freezes into ice pellets. This occurs most often in the
winter when warm air is forced over a layer of cold air.
Hail is a large frozen raindrop produced by
intense thunderstorms, where snow and
rain can coexist in the central updraft. As
the snowflakes fall, liquid water freezes
onto them forming ice pellets that will
continue to grow as more and more
droplets are accumulated. Upon reaching
the bottom of the cloud, some of the ice
pellets are carried by the updraft back up
to the top of the storm.
Dew is water in the form of droplets
that appears on thin, exposed
objects in the morning or evening.
As the exposed surface cools by
radiating its heat, atmospheric
moisture condenses at a rate
greater than that at which it can
evaporate, resulting in the formation
of water droplets.
When temperatures are low enough,
dew takes the form of ice; this form
is called frost (frost is, however, not
frozen dew).
Mist/ fog
Mist is a phenomenon of small droplets
suspended in air. It can occur as part of
natural weather or volcanic activity,
and is common in cold air above
warmer water, in exhaled air in the cold,
and in a steam room of a sauna. It can
also be created artificially with aerosol
canisters if the humidity conditions are
right.
Rainfall Characteristic
Depth
Measurements in high-rainfall
Measured in mm @ cm
Measured by the hour, day, week, month and year
Duration
The period of time during which rain fell
Rain time interval fall measured in minutes and hour
Intensity
Depth of rainfall per unit time
Example: 30 mm in 3 hours; intensity = 10mm/hr
Rainfall Frequency
The frequency of rainfall occurred
Repeat for the rain
This situation can be illustrated by the rainfall that is:

a) Uniform distribution: suitable for agriculture and reduce erosion
b) Distribution of single-mode: rainfall in the wet season
c) Distribution of dual mode
Rainfall Intensity
Intensity/heavy rain is the depth of rainfall per
unit time
The symbol is i and the units are mm/hr @
cm/hr @ in/hr
Rainfall intensity equation :
i = Depth rainfall
Time
Volume, V = Area x Depth
= m
3
@ ka
3
Arithmetical Average Method
Thiessen Polygon Method
Isohyetal Method
Methods used to
convert point
rainfall values at
different rain gauge
stations into an
average value over
a catchment
include

Arithmetical Mean Method
Thiessen Polygon Method
Isohyetal Method etc

Arithmetic Average Method
This technique calculates area precipitation using the
arithmetic mean of all the point or area measurements
considered in the analysis.
Example:

Thiessen Polygon Method
Thiessen Polygon Method
Rainfall
Station
A
Thiessen Constant
(Fractional Area)
B
Rainfall in Each Polygon
A*B
Weighted average
A 0.144 33.4 4.81
B 0.110 34.2 3.76
C 0.104 33.3 3.46
D 0.133 34.5 4.59
E 0.132 35.0 4.62
F 0.113 37.0 4.18
G 0.064 37.3 2.39
H 0.105 35.5 3.73
I 0.103 35.0 3.60
Sum Total 1.00 35.14

Isohyetal Method
Isohyet It is a line joining points of equal rainfall magnitude
The catchment area is drawn to scale and the rain gauge stations are
marked on it
The recorded rainfall values for which areal average is to determined are
marked at the respective stations
Neighbouring stations outside the catchment are also considered
Taking point rainfall values as the guide, ishohyets of different rainfall
values are drawn (similar to drawing contours based on spot
levels)
The area between adjacent isohyets is measured using a planimeter.
If isohyets go out of the catchment, the catchment boundary is used as
the bounding line. It is assumed that the average value of rainfall
indicated by two isohyets acts over the inter isohyetal area
This method is considered superior to the previous methods when the
number of raingauge stations are large
Isohyets
Upper

Lower
A
Mean Rainfall
On Area
B
Area Between
Isohyets (ha)
A*B
Weighted Mean
Rainfall
38 37 37.5 130 4875
37 36 36.5 150 5475
36 35 35.5 300 10650
35 34 34.5 450 15525
34 33 33.5 200 6700
Total 1230 43225

Mean Rainfall = 35.14 i.e. from (43225/1230)
Normal ratio method (NRM) is used when the normal annual
precipitation at any of the index station differs from that of
the interpolation station by more than 10%. In this method,
the precipitation amounts at the index stations are weighted
by the ratios of their normal annual precipitation data in a
relationship of the form:

Where:
Pm = precipitation at the missing location
Pi = precipitation at index station
Nm = average annual rain at missing data
gauge
Ni = average annual rain at gauge
N = number of rain gauges
is used to calculate quickly the
average rainfall for hourly time
intervals. The method takes into
account the nonlinearity of the rainfall
distribution over the basin area. The
basin is divided in a network of
square elements with a fixed step
size. The rainfall is calculated in each
node using interpolation, as a
function of the measured values at
the adjacent stations.
Procedure:
Divide area around gauge of interest into four quadrants
Using records at nearest station in each quadrant
Compute missing precipitation amount:

Where:
Pi = rainfall recorded by gauge i
Xi = distance from gauge i to
missing data point
Consistency of Precipitation Data
A double-mass curve is used to
check the consistency of a rain
gauge record:
compute cumulative rainfall
amounts for suspect gauge and
check gauges
plot cumulative rainfall amounts
against each other (divergence
from a straight line indicates
error)
multiplying erroneous data after
change by a correction factor k
where