By : Halina Binti Hamid

Precipitation can be divided into two

categories which are :

Liquid - Rain, Drizzle
Frozen Snow, Glaze, Sleet, Hail

Rain mostly occurs in nimbostratus clouds and cumulonimbus
clouds. These clouds are capable of producing cloudbursts.

Most rain starts as snow or ice crystals; as the snow falls through
the cloud it melts. Drizzle is a fine uniform water droplet with a
diameter less than 0.5 mm.


Rain & Drizzle
Rain is the major form of precipitation in the form of water drops
of sizes greater than 0.5 mm. The maximum sizes of rain drop is
about 6 mm. based on its intensity, rainfall is classified as light
rain (> 2.5 mm/hr), moderate rain (2.5 7.5 mm/hr) and heavy
rain (<7.5 mm/hr)
Temperature Profile for Rain
Snow is precipitation in the form of ice crystals (snowflakes) or
more often, aggregates if ice crystals. These ice crystals often
combine themselves to form snow flakes. Their sizes may vary from
a few millimeters to several centimeters. The size and structure of
the crystals is a function of the temperature at which they form.

When air temperatures are cold the moisture content is very
small. This results in the formation of very light fluffy snow
made up of six sided ice crystals.

When conditions are warmer,
the ice crystals join together into
larger clumps consisting
interlocked aggregates of crystals.
Snow
Temperature Profile for Snow
Sleet and Glaze
Sleet is a wintertime phenomenon that refers to the fall of small
particles of ice that are clear to translucent.
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.
Glaze is forms on the
ground as an ice
coating when rains or
drizzles come in
contact with the cold
ground at ground 0C.
Temperature Profile for Sleet and Glaze
Hail
Hail is precipitation in the form of hard, rounded pellets or
irregular lumps of ice. The layers of ice accumulate as the
hailstone travels up and down in a strong convective cloud.
Hailstones begin as small
ice pellets that grow by adding
super cooled water droplets as
they move through the cloud.
As the ice crystal cycles up and
down in the cloud the hailstones
increase in size until they are
forced out by a downdraft or
become heavy enough to fall
out.
This large hailstone fell from a tornadic supercell northeast of Breckenridge,
TX. The stones left a path miles wide littered with three to four and one half
inch stones. The hail fell from a dark cloud base to the south of a developing
mesocyclone. No rain or thunder occurred in the immediate area while the
stones were coming down.
Hail
4
Precipitation Measurements
Standard Instruments:

Simple rain gauge, standard rain gauge, tipping bucket gauge,
weighing gauge
Depth (inches , mm)
A measurement of the amount of rain which has fallen (mm)
Duration(hours)
Length of time over which rainfall (storm event) occurs
Intensity (inches per hour , mm per hour)
The rate at which rain falls, usually measured in millimeters per hour.
Intense rainfall is associated with convectional rain, notably in
thunderstorms and tropical regions, where intensity may be over
100mm per hour. The intensity of rainfall is normally inversely
proportional to its duration.
Rain Frequency
The number of times, during a specified period of years, that
precipitation of a certain magnitude or greater occurs or will occur at
a station; numerically, the reciprocal of the frequency is usually given.

TYPE OF RAINFALL
Front
Cyclone
Convective
Orographic
Convectional Rain
During summer days the earths surface can becomes very hot.
This can cause an intense warming of the air making it very buoyant.
The air rises quickly.
As it does so it expands and cools. The air can no longer hold the
moisture; condensation takes place and rain forms.
The cool air then falls and is caught and dragged back upward by
more rising air forming a convection cell.
Movement of Storm
Cumulonimbus
cloud
Positive
Charge
Negative
Charge
Lightning
Cool air descends
and replaces
warm air
Frontal Rain
A warm air mass tries to force into a cold air mass.
The warm air is lighter and less dense than the cold air and so
is forced to rise over it.
As the warm air rises it expands and cools and so rain forms.

This line
represents the
front separating
warm air from
cold air
Rain
Cumulus cloud
Warm air rises over cold air;
it expands and cools, condenses,
clouds and rain form
Warm air
Cool air
Orographic (Relief) Rain
Upland areas force the warm moist air upward, where it cools.
As the warm air rises it expands and cools, condensation takes
place and rain forms.
The rain is often heavy and prolonged.
Sea
Moist
wind
Rain
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

i
n
c
r
e
a
s
e
s

When air rises the
pressure on it decreases;
the expands and cools
When the air
descends the
pressure on it
increases; the
air contracts
and warms
Cyclone
A cyclone is a large low pressure region with
circular wind motion.
Two types of cyclones are recognised :
Tropical Cyclones
Extra tropical Cyclones

Rainfall intensity varies widely in time
and space.
High intensity storms are usually of
short duration and cover relatively small
areas.
Low-intensity storms are typically of
longer duration and cover larger areas.
If the drainage area is 10 km
2
to 1000 km
2
(or 1 10
7
m
2
to 1 10
9

m
2
), then the rainfall intensity I = F
A
I, where F
A
= areal reduction
factor. Areal reduction factor is provided in Table 13.1 (MSMAM)
or Figure 13.1 (MSMAM) as shown below.

Figure 13.1 Graphical Areal Reduction Factor
If the 0.75 hour rainfall intensity computed for a 30
km
2
catchment area based on polynomial equation
is I = 250 mm/hr, based on Figure 13.1 determine the
rainfall depth. Account for the variability in rainfall.

Polynomial equation:

where,
I = intensity (mm/hr)
t = duration (minutes)
a, b, c and d = coefficients based on ARI and
location

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
3 2
ln ln ln ln t d t c t b a I
t
R
+ + + =
Since the catchment area A = 30 km
2
> 10 km
2
, then the
areal reduction factor is required.

Therefore, the rainfall intensity I = F
A
I
I = 0.9 250 mm/hr
I = 225 mm/hr

The rainfall depth P = I t
P = 225 0.75
P = 168.75 mm
2 hours line
30 km
2

0.9
A rainfall hyetograph is a graphical representation of the
variation of rainfall depth or intensity with time.
Rainfall-runoff hydrograph methods require a
description of this variation.

The temporal patterns of the west coast and east coast
of Peninsular Malaysia are provided in Table 13.B1 and
Table 13.B2 of MSMAM.

Using the rainfall depth from previous question, obtain the design
hyetograph for 30 minute duration. Assume an area of West Coast
Malaysia.

Based on Table 13.B1, the temporal depth for 30 minute duration is
Based on the rainfall depths, the
design rainfall hyetograph of depth
is:
Based on the rainfall intensity,
the design rainfall hyetograph
of intensity is:
Representing Water Amounts

At a point it is most convenient to represent amounts of
water, such as precipitation, runoff, evaporation, or
groundwater recharge, as a depth.

Depth, e.g. mm of rainfall, can be thought of as a
measure of volume per unit area.
When we want to estimate runoff or compare stream
flow amounts to rainfall amounts, it becomes necessary
to get an area average based on point measurements.

There are numerous methods to estimate areal average
rainfall.
Arithmetic average
Theissen polygon method
Isohyetal method
Interpolation to a grid
Eyeball method
Linear interpolation
Spline fitting
Normal ratio method
Distance weighting
Kriging
Simply take the average of all the station values in the
study area. This method works well only if the stations
are evenly distributed over the study area.
This method develops areal weights based on the rainfall pattern.
The areal average is obtained using a area-weighted average of the
isohyetal zones.
This method weights the contribution of each station based on the
area it represents. The areal average is obtained using a area-
weighted average of the station values.
Incomplete records of rainfall are
sometimes possible due to operator
error or equipment malfunction.
In the case, it is often necessary to
estimate the missing record.
There are two methods of correction:
Arithmetic Method
Normal Ratio Method
Quadrant Method
Normal Ratio Method
Normal ratio method -
Get observed rainfall at surrounding stations
These are weighted by the ratio of the normal
annual rainfall at station X and normal annual
rainfall at that station.



where Px = estimation of ppt at station x, Pi = ppt at Nx = normal ppt
at station X and Ni is ppt at the ith surrounding station .
|
|
.
|

\
|
=

=
i
x
n
i
i x
N
N
P
n
P
1
1
The normal annual rainfall at stations A,B,C, and D in a
basin are 80.97, 67.59, 76.28 and 92.01 cm respectively.
In the year 1975, the station D was inoperative and the
station A,B and C recorded annual precipitations of
91.11, 72.23 and 79.89 cm respectively. Estimate the
rainfall at station D in that year.
Solution :
As the normal rainfall values vary more than 10% the normal
ratio method is adopted. Using the equation :

|
|
.
|

\
|
+ + + =
n
n
X
X
N
P
N
P
N
P
n N
P
.....
1
2
2
1
1
|
.
|

\
|
+ + =
28 . 76
89 . 79
59 . 67
23 . 72
79 . 80
11 . 91
3
01 . 92
D
P
= 99.48 cm

Four quadrants are delineated by north-south and east-west
lines passing through raingauge station where the missing
rainfall is to be estimated.
One raingauge station in each quadrant, which is the nearest
to the raingauge station under question in that quadrat , is
selected.
The weight applicable to each of these four station is
computed as the reciprocal of the square of the distance
between this station and the origin of the quadrants.
Then the rainfalls recorded at the four stations in the four
quadrants are multiplied by their respective weights and
added.
The resulting sum is divided by the sum of the weights to
yield the missing rainfall.
Where P
x
, is the missing rainfall at station X. P
1
, P
2
, P
3
and
P
4
are the rainfalls recorded at the raingauge stations in
the four quadrants which are nearest to station X in the
respective quadrants, and which are at distances of r
1
, r
2
,
r
3
and r
4
from station X respectively.
Station X failed to report the rainfall recorded during a storm.
With respect to east-west and north-south axes set up at
station X, the coordinates of 4 surrounding gauges, which are
the nearest to station X in the respective quadrants, are
(10,15), (-8,5), (-12,-9) and (5,-15) km respectively. Determine
the missing rainfall at X, if the storm rainfalls at the four
surrounding gauges are 73, 89, 68 and 57 mm respectively

Some of the common causes for
inconsistency of record include :

Shifting of raingauge station to a new location
The neighborhood of the station undergoing
a marked change.
This technique is based on the principle
that when each recorded data comes from
the same parent population, they are
consistent.

A group of n (usually 5 to 10) base stations in the
neighborhood of the problem station X is selected.
Annual (or monthly mean) rainfall data of 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 record as
the first entry and the oldest record as the first entry
and the oldest record as the last entry in the list).
The annual rainfall at station X, and the
average of annual at 25 surrounding base
stations in cm are given below for a period
of 36 years starting from 1941.

i. Check whether the data of station X is consistent.
ii. In which year a charge in regime indicated ?
iii. Compute the mean annual rainfall for station X at
its present site for given 36 year period first
without adjustment and secondly with the data
adjusted for the change in regime.
iv. Compute the adjusted annual rainfalls at station X
for the affected period.

i. As the double mass curve is not having a uniform
slope, it can be concluded that the record at station X
is not consistent.
ii. Since there is a break in the slope of the double mass
curve in the year 1953, it may be said that the data at
station X prior to 1953 is inconsistent and needs
adjustment.
iii. From Col. (3), the total of 36 year rainfall at station X
without adjustment = 3953 cm
so,
The man annual rainfall at X without adjustment
= 3953 = 109.8 cm
36
From the graph of double mass curve, the cumulative
rainfall at station X for 36 years after correction =
3480 cm.
So,
The mean annual rainfall at X after adjustment
= 3480 = 96.7 cm
36
iv) The slope of the adjusted mass curve for the
affected period of 1941 to 1953, that is the slope of
the line CB = 0.85. The slope of the unadjusted mass
curve, that is the slope of the line CB = 1.17
Therefore the correction factor for adjustment
= 0.85 = 0.7265
1.17

The adjusted annual rainfalls at station X for the period
1941 to 1952 are given below.