| Faculty Engineering Technology

Chapter 2
Hydrology and hydraulics
Precipitation

Najihah Abdul Rashid

 Precipitation analysis

Identify the type of precipitation and the

methods of measurement
 Precipitation
• water (solid, liquid) falling from atmosphere to
ground
• Include rain, drizzle, snow, hail, sleet, ice crystals
• Magnitude of rain is varies depend on time and
location
• Conditions:
– Humid
– Nuclei
– Droplets to raindrops
– Size of raindrops
• Adiabatic expansion due to pressure change
 Formation of precipitation
Different topographies
• Convective: due to intense heating of air
on the ground causes to expansion and
vertical rise of air
• Cyclonic: movement of large air-mass
system (warm or cold fronts)
• Orographic: due to mechanical lifting of
moist air masses over the windward side
of mountain ranges
Fig 2.1 The three different precipitation lifting mechanisms,
when air at different temperatures meet in different
topographies
 Precipitation measurement
• Container to collect P in a storm event
• Radar, digital recorders
• Accuracy depends on physical setting,
disturbances… etc
• Weather data available from government
agencies
 Fig 2.2 examples of gages used for measuring
precipitation. Panel a shows an 8-inch standard US rain
gage. The collection funnel inside directs the rain to a
plastic measurement tube. Panel b shows a tipping bucket
recording rain gage. The buckets are calibrated to tip after
0.01 in of rainfall and are recorded by a data system
 Precipitation measurement (cont)
• Standard settings are adopted to accurately represent
the rainfall in the area surrounding the raingauge.
• Standard settings
– The ground must be level and in the open and the
instrument must be present a horizontal catch surface
– Must be set near the ground to reduce wind effects but
must be sufficiently high to prevent splashing, flooding etc
– Surrounded by an open fenced area of at least 5.5 m x 5.5
m. No object should be nearer to the instrument than 30 m
or twice the height of the obstruction
Fig 2.3 Non recording raingauge (Symon’s gauge)
 Adequacy of raingauge stations
If there are already some raingauge stations in a
catchment
N = (Cv/ɛ)2 (2.1)
Where:
N= optimal number of stations
Ɛ= allowable degree of error in the estimate of the mean rainfall
Cv= coefficient of variation of the rainfall values at the existing

Cv = 100 x σ m-1 / P (2.2)

Consider the exisiting m raingauges. They have a
mean rainfall of P and a coefficient of variation
of Cv. To know the percentage of error (ɛex) of
estimation of mean in the existing system of m
raingauges. Eq 2.1 can be written:
M = (Cv/ ɛex)2
 Example 2.1
• A catchment has six raingauge stations. In a year,
the annual rainfall recorded by the gauges are as
follows:
Station A B C D E F
Rainfall 82.6 102.9 180.3 110.3 98.8 136.7
(cm)

– Determine the standard error in the estimation of

mean rainfall in the existing set of rainguages
– For 10% error in the estimation of the mean rainfall,
calculate the optimum number of raingauge stations
in the catchment
Preparation of Data (estimation of
missing data)
Given the annual precipitation values P1, P2,
P3,…. Pm at neighbouring M stations 1, 2, 3,…,
M respectively, it is required to find the
missing annual precipitation Px at a station X
not included in the above M stations.
If the normal annual precipitations at various
stations are within about 10% of the normal
annual precipitation at station X then a simple
arithmetic average procedure is followed to
estimate Px, Thus
Px = 1/M [P1 + P2 + … Pm]
 If the normal annual precipitations vary
considerably then Px is estimated by weighing
the precipitation at various stations by the
ratios of normal annual precipitations. This
method, known as the normal ratio method,
gives Px as
Px = Nx/M [P1/N1 + P2/N2 + … + Pm/Nm]
 Example 2.1
The normal annual rainfall stations A, B, C and D
in a basin are 80.97, 67.59, 76.28 and 92.01
cm respectively. In the year 1985, the station
D was inoperative and the stations A, B, and C
recorded annual precipitation of 91.1, 72.23
and 79.89 cm respectively. Estimate the
rainfall at station D in that year
 Test for consistency of record
If the conditions relevant to the recording of a
raingauge station have undergone a significant
change during the period of record,
inconsistency would arise in the rainfall data
of that station
• Some of the common causes for inconsistency
of record are
– Shifting a raingauge station to a new location
– The neighbourhood of the station undergoing a
marked change
– Change in the ecosystem
– Occurrence of observational error
Fig 2.3 Double-mass curve
 A decided break in the slope of the resulting plot
indicates a change in the precipitation of station
X. The precipitation value at station X beyond the
period of change of regime (point 63 in Fig 2.3) is
corrected by using the relation
Pcx = Px (Mc/Ma)
Where,
Pcx = corrected precipitation at any time period t1
Px = original recorded precipitation at time period t1
Mc= corrected slope of the double-mass curve
Ma= original slope of the double mass curve
 Example 2.2
Annual rainfall data for station M as well as the
average annual rainfall values for a group of
ten neighbouring stations located in a
meteorologically homogeneous region are
give (see attachment)
 Solution 2.2
The data is sorted in descending order of the
year, starting from the latest year 1979.
Cumulative values of station M rainfall (ƩPm) and
the ten station average rainfall values (ƩPav)
are calculated.
The data is then plotted with ƩPm on the y-axis
and ƩPav on the x-axis
 Presentation of rainfall data
• Mass curve of rainfall
• Hyetograph
• Point rainfall
• Moving average
 Moving average
Technique for smoothening out the high
frequency fluctuations of a time series and to
enable the trend, if any to be noticed.
The basic principle is that window of time range
m years is selected. Starting from the first set
of m years of data, the average of the data for
m years is calculated and placed in the middle
year of the range m. the window is next
moved sequentially
 Example 2.3
Annual rainfall values recorded at station M for
the period 1950 to 1979 is given in
attachment. Represent this data as a bar
diagram with time in chronological order
Fig 2.4 Bar chart of annual rainfall at station M
Fig 2.5 Solution example 2.3
 Mean precipitation over an area
Arithmetic average:
for evenly distribute stations (uniform
density)
Thiessen method
area-weighted averaging
Isohyetal lines
contouring
Example 2.4: Areal Estimation of P from a
network of gages

13.97 mm

22.1 mm

137.2 mm
59.2 mm

48 mm
 Solution 2.4

Pa = 1/N ∑ Pi

(13.97 + 22.1 + 59.2 + 48.0+ 137.2)/5

= 56.1
 Thiessen Polygon Method (example
2.4)
• Area-weighted average
(every gage represents best the area
immediately around the gage)
Constructing Thiessen Network:
1. Plot stations on a map
2. Connect adjacent stations by straight
lines
3. Bisect each connecting line
perpendicularly
4. Perpendicular lines define a polygon
around each station
5. P at a station is applied to the
polygon closest to it
 Solution 2.4
St. P Polygon Weighted Weight-
No area area ed P

1 13.97 15 0.128 1.788

2 22.1 33 0.281 9.273

3 59.2 28.8 0.245 14.5

4 48 16.4 0.139 6.672

5 137.2 24.3 0.207 28.4

Tot 280.47 117.5 1.00 60.633

als
 Isohyetal method
In the isohyetal method, the catchment area is
drawn to scale and the raingauge stations are
marked

Fig 2.5 Isohyetals of a storm

Fig 2.6 Thiessen polygons of example
 Example 2.5
For the catchment area shown in Fig 2.6, the
details of thiessen polygons surrounding each
raingauge and the recordings of the
raingauges in the month of August 2011 are
given below
Raingauge station 1 2 3 4 5 6
Thiessen polygon area 720 380 440 1040 800 220
(km2)
Recorded rainfall in mm 121 134 145 126 99 115
during August 2011
Determine the average depth of rainfall on the
basin in August 2011 by
– Arithmetic mean method
– Thiessen mean method
 Example 2.6
The isohyets due to a storm in a catchment were
drawn (fig 2.5) and the area of the catchment
bounded by isohyets were tabulated as below

Isohyets (cm) Area (km2)

Station – 12.0 30
12.0 – 10.0 140
10.0 – 8.0 80
8.0 – 6.0 180
6.0 – 4.0 20
 Solution 2.6
For the first area consisting of the station
surrounded by a closed isohyet, a
precipitation value of 12.0 cm is taken. For all
other areas , the mean of two bounding
isohyets are taken