Presentation

on Precipitation
By Veera Satya Mallesh
07011A0148

12/08/2021
 Objectives
• Formation of precipitation
• Different forms of precipitation.
• measurement of Precipitation.

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 General concept
• There are several forces acting on a water droplet or
ice crystal in a cloud.
– Winds
– Atmospheric stability
– Gravity
– Drag (friction)
• When a droplet reaches a certain critical mass the
force of gravity will exceed the other forces and
precipitation will fall.
• Rain drops are 100X larger than cloud droplets
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 Formation of precipitation
Formation in the Warm air
1. Condensation and deposition
2. Collision and coalescence

Formation in the Cold air

1. Bergeron process

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 Condensation and deposition
• As long as the rate of condensation exceeds
the rate of evaporation water will be
deposited and accumulate on condensation
nuclei
• Droplets grow very slowly
• Rarely produces rain drops

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 Collision and coalescence

• As water droplets fall through a cloud, the

larger droplets fall faster than the smaller
ones, thus they collide
• If the droplets coalesce a larger drop is
formed
• If it gets big enough rain will fall

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 The Bergeron process
Vapour pressure over ice is less than vapour
pressure over water of the
same temperature
Thus, water molecules move from
water to ice and freeze on the ice
If the crystals get large enough they
will fall

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 Forms of precipitation
• Rain
• Drizzle
• Glaze
• Sleet
• Snow
• Snow flakes
• Hail
• Graupel
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 Rain
• When the size of the drops is more than 0.5
mm and not greater than 6.25 mm, as drops
greater than this tend to break up as they fall
through air

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 Drizzle
• When the size of water droplets is under 0.5
mm, and its intensity is less than 0.01 mm per
hour

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 Glaze
• When the drizzle or rain freezes as it comes in
contact with cold objects, it is known as glaze.

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 Sleet
• It is frozen rain drops cooled to the ice stage
while falling through air at sub-freezing
temperature.

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 Sleet

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 Snow
Precipitation in the form of ice crystals resulting
from sublimation. (water vapour changed
directly to ice).

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 Snow flakes
• Number of ice crystals fused together form
snow flakes.

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 Hail
• Hail is lumps or bulbs of ice over 5mm
diameter formed by alternate freezing or
melting as they are carried up and down in
highly turbulent air currents.

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 Graupel
• Graupel (also called small hail) is formed when
super cooled water droplets of water
condense on a snow flake to form a ball of size
2-5mm

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 Measurement of Rainfall
• Rainfall and other forms of precipitation are
measured in terms of depth, the values being
expressed in millimeters.
• One millimeter of precipitation represents the
quantity of water needed to cover the land with a
1mm layer of water, taking into account that nothing
is lost through drainage, evaporation or absorption.
• Instrument used to collect and measure the
precipitation is called raingauge.

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 Rainfall measurement…

Precipitation gauge
1 - pole
2 - collector
3 - support- galvanized metal sheet
4 – funnel
5 - steel ring

1. Non recording gauge

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2. Recording gauge / graphic raingauge

• The instrument records the graphical variation

of the fallen precipitation, the total fallen
quantity in a certain time interval and the
intensity of the rainfall (mm/hour).
• It allows continuous measurement of the
rainfall. The graphic rain gauge
1-receiver
2-floater
3-siphon
4-recording needle
5-drum with diagram
6-clock mechanism

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 3. Tele-rain gauge with tilting baskets
• The tele-rain gauge is used to transmit
measurements of precipitation through electric
or radio signals.
• The sensor device consists of a system with two
tilting baskets, which fill alternatively with
water from the collecting funnel, establishing
the electric contact.
• The number of tilting is proportional to the
quantity of precipitation
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 Tele-rain gauge ……

The tele-rain-gauge

1 - collecting funnel
2 - tilting baskets
3 - electric signal
4 - evacuation

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 Raingauge Network
• Since the catching area of the raingauge is very
small as compared to the areal extent of the
storm, to get representative picture of a storm
over a catchment the number of raingauges
should be as large as possible, i.e. the
catchment area per gauge should be small.
• There are several factors to be considered to
restrict the number of gauge:
– Like economic considerations to a large extent
– Topographic & accessibility to some extent.
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• World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
recommendation:
– In flat regions of temperate, Mediterranean and tropical
zones
• Ideal  1 station for 600 – 900 km2
• Acceptable 1 station for 900 – 3000 km2
– In mountainous regions of temperate , Mediterranean and
tropical zones
• Ideal  1 station for 100 – 250 km2
• Acceptable  1 station for 250 – 1000 km2
– In arid and polar zone
• 1 station for 1500 – 10,000 km2
• 10 % of the raingauges should be self recording to
know the intensity of the rainfall

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 Mean Precipitation over an area
• Raingauges rainfall represent only point sampling of
the areal distribution of a storm
• The important rainfall for hydrological analysis is a
rainfall over an area, such as over the catchment
• To convert the point rainfall values at various stations
to in to average value over a catchment, the
following methods are used:
– arithmetic mean
– the method of the Thiessen polygons
– the isohyets method

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 Arithmetic Mean Method

• When the area is physically and climatically homogenous and the required
accuracy is small, the average rainfall for a basin can be obtained as the
arithmetic mean of the hi values recorded at various stations.
• Applicable rarely for practical purpose

P1  P2  ..... Pi  .....Pn 1 N
P
N
 
N i1
Pi

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 Method of Thiessen polygons

• The method of Thiessen polygons consists of

attributing to each station an influence zone in
which it is considered that the rainfall is
equivalent to that of the station.
• The influence zones are represented by convex
polygons.
• These polygons are obtained using the
mediators of the segments which link each
station to the closest neighbouring stations
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 Thiessen polygons ……….

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 P7
P6

A7
A6
P2

A2
A1
A8 A5
P1
P8 P5
A3 A4
P3

P4

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 Thiessen polygons ……….
P1 A 1  P 2 A 2  .....  P m A m
P 
 A 1  A 2  .....  A m 
Generally for M station

 PA i i M
Ai
P  i 1
Atotal
 
i 1
Pi
A

Ai
The ratio is called the weightage factor of station i
A

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 Isohyetal Method
• An isohyet is a line joining points of equal
rainfall magnitude.
8

D
6 C a5
6 12
9.2
12
a4
7.0 a3
4 B
4 7.2
A
a2 E 10.0
9.1
4.0 a1
F

6
4
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 Isohyetal Method

• P1, P2, P3, …. , Pn – the values of the isohytes

• a1, a2, a3, …., a4 – are the inter isohytes area respectively
• A – the total catchment area
• - the mean precipitation over the catchment

 P1  P2   P2  P3   Pn1  Pn 
a1   a2   ... an1 
 2   2   2 
P
A
The isohyetal method is superior to the other two methods
especially when the stations are large in number.
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 Thank you

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