Precipitation

Precipitation is the primary input vector of the

Hydrologic cycle. It comes in form of rain, snow, hail , drizzle and
sleet.
The chief source of moisture producing precipitation is evaporation
from oceans, seas.
Rainfall being the predominant form of precipitation causing stream
flow.
Types of precipitation
1- Convective precipitation
It is the result of heating of
air at the interface with the ground.
The heated air absorbs moisture and
rises. As it rises, it cools and
forms precipitations.
2- Orographic Precipitation:
Produced when moist air is lifted as it moves over a mountain
range. As the air rises and cools, orographic clouds form and
serve as the source of the precipitation, most of which falls
upwind of the mountain ridge. Some also falls a short distance
downwind of the ridge.
3- Frontal lifting:

Warmer air is forced to go above cooler air in

equilibrium with a cooler surface .
4- Cyclonic Lifting:

A cyclonic storm is a large, low pressure system that forms

when a warm air mass and a cold air mass
collide .
Forms of precipitation
1- Rain
Water drops that have a diameter of at least 0.5 mm. It can be
classified based on intensity as ,
Light rain up to 2.5 mm/h Moderate rain 2.5 to 7.5 mm/h
Heavy rain < 7.5 mm/h

2- Snow
Precipitation in the form of ice crystals which usually combine
to form flakes, with an average density of 0.1 gm /cm3

3- Drizzle
Rain-droplets of size less than 0.5 mm and rain intensity of less
than 1mm/h is known as drizzle.
4- Glaze
When rain or drizzle touches ground at 0Co, glaze or
freezing rain is formed .
5- Sleet
It is frozen raindrops of transparent grains which form
when rain falls through air at subfreezing
temperature .
6- Hail
It is a showery precipitation in the form of irregular
pellets or lumps of ice of size more than 8 mm .
Precipitation Rainfall measurement

• Instrument used to collect and measure the precipitation is called rain

gauge
• Types of rain gauges
Non-Recording: Symon’s gauge
Recording
1- Tipping-bucket type
2- Weighing-bucket type
3- Natural-syphon type
 Precipitation Recording rain gauges

The instrument records the graphical variation of the rainfall, the total
collected quantity in a certain time interval and the intensity of the
rainfall (mm/hour).
It allows continuous measurement of the rainfall.
1. Tipping-bucket type
These buckets are so balanced that when 0.25mm of rain falls into one
bucket, it tips bringing the other bucket in position
Weighing-bucket type

• The weight of the catch empties into a bucket mounted on a

weighing scale.
• bucket and its contents are recorded on a clock work driven chart.
• The instrument gives a plot of cumulative rainfall against time (mass
curve of rainfall).
 Natural Syphon Type (Float Type)

• The rainfall collected in the funnel shaped collector is led into a float
chamber, causing the float to rise .
• As the float rises, a pen attached to the float through a lever system
records the rainfall on a rotating drum driven by a clockwork
mechanism .
• A syphon arrangement empties the float chamber when the float has
reached a preset maximum level .
Errors in precipitation measurements by gauges

1- Instrument errors.
2- Errors in scale reading.
3- Dent in receivers.
4- About o.25mm water initially requires to wet the surface of gauge.
5- Rain gauge splash from collector.
6- Frictional effects.
7- Loss of water by evaporation.
8- Leakage in measuring cylinder
9- Wind speed reduces measured amount of rain in the rain gauges.
Average Precipitation Over Area

• The following methods are used to measure the average precipitation

over an area :
• Arithmetic Mean Method
• Thiessen polygon method
• Isohyetal line method
1- Arithmetic Mean Method
Simplest method for determining average
precipitation
*Data taken only from the
stations within the boundary

* All station within practical limit are

uniformity distributed over the area

* The rainfall also nearly uniformly

distributed over the area

 P1  P2  ....... Pi  ....  Pn 1 N
P   Pi
N N i 1
P: Precipitation
N: Number of gauges
 2-Thiessen polygon method
• This method assumes that any point in the watershed receives the same amount
of rainfall as that measured at the nearest rain gauge station. Here, rainfall
recorded at a gauge can be applied to any point at a distance halfway to the next
station in any direction.
• Steps:
• A- Draw lines joining adjacent gages
• B- Draw perpendicular bisectors to the lines created in step a
• Extend the lines created in step (b) in both directions to form representative areas
for gages
• Compute representative area for each gage
 M

 P1 A 1  P2 A 2  .......  Pn A n P A i i M
Ai
P  i 1
  Pi
A1  A 2  .....  A n  A i 1 A
where,
Ai : Area of each gage.
Pi : Average precipitation for each gage.
Example: Using Thiessen polygon method, find averrage
rainfall over a catchment , the data is:
Rain gauge station: a, b, c
2
Polygon area (km )= A1, A2, A3
Precipitation (mm) = p1, p2, p3
Isohytal line method

Steps for the isohyetal method:

1.Draw lines of equal precipitation or rainfall (isohyets)
2.Estimate the precipitation between the isohyets
3.Determine the area between the isohyets
4.Multiply step 2 and 3 and sum the values
5.Divide the sum by the total area of the basin to get the area rainfall
Estimation
  P1  P2   P2  P3   Pn -1  Pn 

a1    a2   ....... a n  
P  2   2   2 
A

a = area between the isohyets

P =Precipitation between isohyets

A=Total area