TYPES OF PRECIPITATION AND RAIN GAUGES

Precipitation

- All forms of water that reaches earth from

Forms of Precipitation:

 Rain
- 0.5 mm < Water drop size < 6mm  Cyclone
- Light rain: 2.5 mm/h - Large low pressure region with circular
- Moderate rain: 2.5 mm/h to 7.5 mm/h wind motion.
- Heavy rain: > 7.5 mm/h - Commonly known as Cyclone in India,
 Snow Hurricane in USA and typhoon in South
- Density varies from 0.06 to 0.15 g/cm3 East Asia.
- Occurs in Himalayan Regions - Areal extent of about 100-200 km in
 Frost diameter.
 Hail - Winds are anticlockwise in the northern
- Showery precipitation hemisphere.
- Irregular pellets or lump of ice of size > 8  Anticyclones
mm - Regions of high pressure
- Occurs in violent thunderstorm - Weather is usually calm in center
 Dew - Clockwise wind in northern hemisphere
 Drizzle - Winds of moderate speed
- Fine sprinkle of water droplets less than - Clouds and precipitation prevails at the
0.5 mm outer edges.
- Intensity less than 1 mm/h  Convective Precipitation
 Glaze - Packet of air rises due to localized
- Rain or drizzle comes in contact with cold heating.
ground at 0°C - Air from cooler surrounding flows to take
- Water drops freezes and form ice coating up its place setting up convective cell
- Warm air rises, cools down and form
Rain and Snow contribute to the maximum precipitation
amount of water. - Depends upon the moisture content,
thermal and other conditions
How Precipitation is formed? - Areal extent is small, about 10 km
 Orographic Precipitation
 The atmosphere must have moisture. The
- Moist air masses lifted up to higher
relative humidity should be greater than 90%
altitudes due to presence of mountain
 Sufficient nuclei to aid condensation.
barrier
 Suitable weather condition for condensation
- Undergo cooling, condensation and
of water vapour.
precipitation
 Products of condensation must reach earth
- In mountain ranges, windward slope have
Weather Systems for Precipitation heavy rainfall and leeward slope have
light rainfall.
 Front - Orographic rainfall in India is seen only
- Interface between two distinct air masses over the Western Ghats during monsoon
- Ascending warm air cools adiabatically period.
and forms clouds - Cherrapunji and Mawsynram are the
wettest place in the world due to its
location in the windward side of
Himalayas and Tibet remains dry being in
the leeward side.
Measurement of Precipitation HYDROLOGY TOPIC 2-3-5 PRECIPITATION DATA
ANALYSIS / POINT PRECIPITATION / MEAN AREAL
 Expressed in terms of depth to which rainfall RAINFALL
water would stand on an area if all the rain
are collected on it.
 It is collected and measured in a rain gauge.
 Other terns are pluviometer, ombrometer and Mean Areal Rainfall
hyetometer. The representative precipitation over a
 It consist of a cylindrical-vessel assembly kept defined area is required in engineering application,
in the open to collect rain whereas the gaged observation pertains to the point
 Classifies into non-recording gauges and precipitation
recording gauges.
 Arithmetic Mean Method
Non-Recording Rain Gauges - This procedure is satisfactory if gauges are
- Symon’s Gauge is commonly used in India uniformly distributed and the topography
- It consists of a circular collecting area of is flat.
12.7 cm(5.0 inch) diameter and height  Isohyetal Method
30.5 cm.  Thiessen Polygon Method
- The rainfall is measured every day at 8:30
The reliability of rainfall measured at one gauge in
a.m. and is recorded as the rainfall of that
representing the average depth over a surrounding
day.
area is a function of the distance from the gauge to
- Can also measure snowfall.
the center of the representative area, the size of the
Recording Rain Gauges area, topography, the nature of the rainfall of
concern, and local stone pattern characteristics.
- Recording gauges produces a continuous
plot of rainfall against time.
- Provides data of intensity and duration of
Arithmetic Mean Method
rainfall for hydrological analysis.
- It uses only those gaging stations within the
 Tipping-Bucket Type topographic basin and is calculated using:
- A 30.5 cm size Rain Gauge
- Buckets are balances such that when 0.25 P=¿¿
mm of rainfall collects in one bucket, it
tips and bring the other one in position. or
 Weighing-Bucket Type Pi
- Plot of accumulated rainfall against P=∑
elapsed time. n
 Neutral-Syphon Type Where,
- Also called as float rain gauge
- Adopted as standard rain gauge in India P = average precipitation depth (mm)
- Gives plot of mass curve of rainfall.
 Telemetering Rain Gauges Pi = precipitation depth at gage (i) within the
- Gather rainfall data from mountainous topographic basin (mm)
regions and inaccessible places.
n = total number of gaging stations within the
topographic basin

Thiessen Polygon Method

- This concept is implemented by drawing

The procedure involves:

1. Connecting each precipitation station with

A1 P1+ A 2 P2 + A3 P3 +…+ A n Pn
P=
A1 + A2 + A3 + …+ A n HYDROLOGY TOPIC 2-3-4 PRECIPITATION DATA
ANALYSIS / MISSING RAINFALL DATA / DOUBLE
n
A i Pi MASS CURVE
¿∑
i=1 A
Rain Gauge Inconsistency
∑ Polygon area for each station x
precipitation  Have been installed at different sites in the
Precipitation= past,
∑ Total Polygon area  The rainfall depth is being recorded
continuously between the previous and the
Isohyetal Method current sites.
- Based on interpolation between gauges.  The entire data is not homogeneous.
- The first step is to plot the rain gauge  Change of exposure conditions of the gage
locations on a suitable map to record the due to growth of the trees or the construction
rainfall amounts. of tall buildings in the proximity of the gage
- Next, an interpolation between gauges is
site, or
performed and rainfall amounts at
 Change in the instrument, or
selected increments are plotted.
 The rain gauge may have been faulty for a
- Identical depths from each interpolation
part of the period of record.
are then connected to for isohyets. The
areal average is the weighted average of Double Mass Curve
depths between isohyets.

P 0+ P 1 P1 + P 2 Pn−1 + Pn
A1+ A2 +…+ An
2 2 2
P=
A1 + A2 +…+ A 1

or
n
Pi−1+ Pi
∑ 2
Ai
P= i=1 n

∑ Ai
i=1

Or
Ma
n
Pi−1+ Pi Pa=P o
Mo
∑ 2
i=1
P= Where
A
∆ Po
Where, M 0=
P = mean areal precipitation ∆P
A = Area
P1, P2, … Pn = precipitation depth for each station ∆ Pa
A1, A2, … An -= Area of each site M a=
∆P