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Design 2 Hydrology
Design 2 Hydrology
Annual precipitation at rain gauge “X” and the average annual precipitation at 25
surrounding rain gauges are listed in the following table:
1. Examine the consistency of the station “X” data.
2. When the change in the regime occurred?
3. Adjust the data and determine what difference this makes to the 36 years
annual precipitation at station “X”.
2.1.1 Precipitation
Precipitation is defined as all types of moisture reaching to the surface of earth from the
atmosphere. The precipitation on the land surface is about one third of the total global
precipitation. The precipitation on land surface is due to 10% evaporation from land and
90% evaporation from oceans.
Precipitation may be in the form of one or more than one of the following forms:
2.1.2.2 Rain
It is precipitation in the form of liquid droplets of diameter ranging from 0.5mm to 6mm.
Its intensity is greater than 1mm/hr. According to U.S meteorological department,
rainfall is classified as:
2.1.2.3 Snow
It is the precipitation in the form of ice crystals.
2.1.2.4 Sleet
It is the precipitation in the form of mixture of liquid drops and ice crystals.
2.1.2.5 Glaze
It is the ice coating generally clear and smooth on exposed surfaces by the freezing of
super cooled water deposited by the rain.
2.1.2.6 Hails
It is the precipitation in the form of ice balls or lumps. Diameter of hail ranges from 5mm
to 125mm.
2.1.2.7 Fogs
It is the precipitation in the form of weak cloud clone reaching to the surface of earth.
Due to very small size droplets, it remains suspended in air for some time. Fog provides
a lot of visibility problems.
2.1.2.8 Frost
It is the precipitation in the form of frozen dew drops on the land surface.
2.1.2.9 Trace
It is very small amount of precipitation at rain gauging station. Usually less than or equal
to 0.125mm.
Following mechanisms are necessarily required for precipitation to occur over an area:
i. Lifting mechanism
Water vapors are present in air even in cloudless days. There are 3
mechanisms available in nature for lifting the moisture-laden air to higher
levels where condensation is possible due to very low air temperatures.
(a) Convective systems
(b) Orographic barriers
(c) Cyclones
Rain gauge is an instrument used to measure the amount of rainfall or the intensity of
rainfall at any place.
It is the total amount of rainfall over an area usually in one day. It is measured in the
units of mm or inches.
It is the amount of precipitation at a place per unit time. It is usually expressed in mm/hr
or inches/hr.
It is the arithmetic average of annual precipitations for “N” years over a rain gauging
station.
Mathematically,
Pavg = Σ (Pi) / N
Where
It is the total amount of rainfall in one year at a place. It can be calculated by taking the
summation of the daily precipitation at any place for the whole year.
It is the total amount of precipitation which can be assumed as uniform for the area. It is
calculated by using different approaches. By Arithmetic mean method, it is calculated
as:
Pavg = Σ (Pi) / N
Where
It is the behavior of data record of a station as compared to the average behavior of all
the surrounding stations.
At any station “X”, consistency of the data record is checked by plotting the Double
mass curve. The variable on the y-axis is cumulative annual precipitation of station “X”
and on x-axis is the average of cumulative annual precipitation of the “N” neighboring
stations. Consistency is checked by the slope of the curve being single or more slopes.
If the slope of the curve remains constant, the precipitation data record is consistent and
if the slope doesn’t remains constant, data record is inconsistent.
2.2 Procedure