● Khwaja Fareed University of

Engineering & Information Technology

R.Y.K
Department Of Civil Engineering

Engineering Hydrology
Assignment

Submitted To:
Eng Samiullah

Submitted By:
Husnain Ali

Reg. No. :
CVE172026
 Different Types of Precipitation
1. Rain
Rain is any liquid that drops from the clouds in the sky. Rain is described as water droplets of
0.5 mm or larger. Droplets less than half a millimeter are defined as drizzle. Raindrops
frequently fall when small cloud particles strike and bind together, creating bigger drops. As this
process continues, the drops get bigger and bigger to an extent where they become too heavy
suspend on the air. As a result, the gravity pulls then down to the earth.
When high in the air, the raindrops start falling as ice crystals or snow but melt when as they
proceed down the earth through the warmer air. Rainfall rates vary from time to time, for
example, light rain ranges from rates of 0.01 to 0.1 inches per hour, moderate rain from 0.1 to .
3 inches per hour, and heavy rain above 0.3 inches per hour. Rain is the most common
component of the water cycle and replenishes most of the fresh water on the earth.

2. Snow
Snow occurs almost every time there is rain. However, snow often melts before it reaches the
earth surface. It is precipitation in the form of virga or flakes of ice water falling from the
clouds. Snow is normally seen together with high, thin and weak cirrus clouds. Snow can at
times fall when the atmospheric temperatures are above freezing, but it mostly occur in sub-
freezing air. When the temperatures are above freezing, the snowflakes can partially melt but
because of relatively warm temperatures, the evaporation of the particles occurs almost
immediately.
This evaporation leads to cooling just around the snowflake and makes it to reach to the ground
as snow. Snow has fluffy, white and soft structure and its formation is in different shapes and
ways, namely flat plates and thin needles. Each type of snow forms under specific combinations
of atmospheric humidity and temperatures. The process of snow precipitation is called
snowfall.

3. Sleet (Ice Pellets)

Sleet takes place in freezing atmospheric conditions. Sleet, also known as ice pellets, form when
snow falls into a warm layer then melts into rain and then the rain droplets falls into a freezing
layer of air that is cold enough to refreeze the raindrops into ice pellets. Hence, sleet is defined
as a form of precipitation composed of small and semitransparent balls of ice. They should not
be confused with hailstones as they are smaller in size.
Sleet is often experienced during thunderstorms and is normally accompanied with frosty
ice crystals that form white deposits and a mixture of semisolid rain and slushy snow. Ice pellets
(sleet) bounce when they hit the ground or any other solid objects and falls with a hard striking
sound. Sleet don not freeze into a solid mass except when it combines with freezing rain.
 4. Freezing Rain
Freezing rain happens when rain falls during below freezing conditions/temperatures. This
normally results in the solidification of rain droplets. The raindrops are super-cooled while
passing through the sub-freezing layer in the atmosphere and freezes by the time it reaches the
ground. During freezing rains, it is common to witness an even coating of ice on cars, streets,
trees, and power lines. The resulting coating of ice is called glaze and it can build up to a
thickness of several centimeters. Freezing rains pose a huge threat to normal operations of
roadway transportation, aircrafts, and power lines.

5. Hail
Hailstones are big balls and irregular lumps of ice that fall from large thunderstorms. Hail is
purely a solid precipitation. As opposed to sleets that can form in any weather when there are
thunderstorms, hailstones are predominately experienced in the winter or cold weather.
Hailstones are mostly made up of water ice and measure between 0.2 inches (5 millimeters)
and 6 inches (15 centimeters) in diameter. This ranges in size of a pea’s diameter to that larger
than a grapefruit.
For this reason, they are highly damaging to crops, tearing leaves apart and reducing their
value. Violent thunderstorms with very strong updrafts usually have the capability to hold ice
against the gravitational pull, which brings about the hailstones when they eventually escape
and fall to the ground. So, hailstones are formed from super-cooled droplets that slowly freeze
and results in sheet of clear ice.

6. Drizzle
Drizzle is very light rain. It is stronger than mist but less than a shower. Mist is a thin fog with
condensation near the ground. Fog is made up of ice crystals or cloud water droplets
suspended in the air near or at the earth’s surface. Drizzle droplets are smaller than 0.5
millimeters (0.02 inches) in diameter. They arise from low stratocumulus clouds. They
sometimes evaporate even before reaching the ground due to their minute size. Drizzle can be
persistent is cold atmospheric temperatures.

7. Sun Shower
Sun shower is a precipitation event that is registered when rain falls while the sun shines. It
occurs when the winds bearing rain together with rain storms are blown several miles away,
thus giving rise to raindrops into an area without clouds. Consequently, sun shower is formed
when single rain cloud passes above the earth’s surface and the sun’s rays penetrate through
the raindrops. Most of the time, it is accompanied with the appearance of a rainbow.

8. Snow Grains
Snow grains are as very small white and opaque grains of ice. Snow grains are fairly flat and
have diameter generally less than 1mm. They are almost equivalent to the size of drizzle. Read
more about snow grains here.

9. Diamond Dust

Diamond dust are extremely small ice crystals usually formed at low levels and at temperatures
below -30 °C. Diamond dust got its name from the sparkling effect which is created when light
reflects on the ice crystals in the air. You can read more about diamond dust here.

Factors Affecting Runoff

1. That part of the precipitation, snow melt, or irrigation water that appears in uncontrolled
(not regulated by a dam upstream) surface streams, rivers, drains or sewers. Runoff may be
classified according to speed of appearance after rainfall or melting snow as direct runoff or
base runoff, and according to source as surface runoff, storm interflow, or groundwater runoff.
2. The sum of total discharges described in (1), above, during a specified period of time.
3. The depth to which a watershed (drainage area) would be covered if all of the runoff for a
given period of time were uniformly distributed over it.

Meteorological factors affecting runoff:

● Type of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, etc.)
● Rainfall intensity
● Rainfall amount
● Rainfall duration
● Distribution of rainfall over the watersheds
● Direction of storm movement
● Antecedent precipitation and resulting soil moisture
● Other meteorological and climatic conditions that affect evapotranspiration, such as
temperature, wind, relative humidity, and season.

Physical characteristics affecting runoff:

● Land use
● Vegetation
● Soil type
● Drainage area
 ● Basin shape
● Elevation
● Slope
● Topography
● Direction of orientation
● Drainage network patterns
● Ponds, lakes, reservoirs, sinks, etc. in the basin, which prevent or alter runoff from
continuing downstream
 
Runoff and water quality
A significant portion of rainfall in forested watersheds is absorbed into soils (infiltration), is
stored as groundwater, and is slowly discharged to streams through seeps and springs. Flooding
is less significant in these more natural conditions because some of the runoff during a storm is
absorbed into the ground, thus lessening the amount of runoff into a stream during the storm.
As watersheds are urbanized, much of the vegetation is replaced by impervious surfaces, thus
reducing the area where infiltration to groundwater can occur. Thus, more storm water runoff
occurs—runoff that must be collected by extensive drainage systems that combine curbs, storm
sewers (as shown in this picture), and ditches to carry storm water runoff directly to streams.
More simply, in a developed watershed, much more water arrives into a stream much more
quickly, resulting in an increased likelihood of more frequent and more severe flooding.

What if the street you live on had only a curb built around it, with no storm water intake such as
the one pictured here. Any low points in your street would collect water when it rained. And if
your street was surrounded by houses with yards sloping uphill, then all the runoff from those
yards and driveways would collect in a lake at the bottom of the street. (Credit: Robert Lawton)
A storm sewer intake such as the one in this picture is a common site on almost all streets.
Rainfall runoff, and sometimes small kids' toys left out in the rain, are collected by these drains
and the water is delivered via the street curb or drainage ditch alongside the street to the
storm-sewer drain to pipes that help to move runoff to nearby creeks and streams. ; storm
sewers help to prevent flooding on neighborhood streets.
Drainage ditches to carry storm water runoff to storage ponds are often built to hold runoff and
collect excess sediment in order to keep it out of streams.
Runoff from agricultural land (and even our own yards) can carry excess nutrients, such
as nitrogen and phosphorus into streams, lakes, and groundwater supplies. These excess
nutrients have the potential to degrade water quality.
 
Why might storm water runoff be a problem?
As it flows over the land surface, storm water picks up potential pollutants that may include
sediment, nutrients (from lawn fertilizers), bacteria (from animal and human waste), pesticides
(from lawn and garden chemicals), metals (from rooftops and roadways), and petroleum by-
products (from leaking vehicles). Pollution originating over a large land area without a single
point of origin and generally carried by storm water is considered non-point pollution. In
contrast, point sources of pollution originate from a single point, such as a municipal or
industrial discharge pipe. Polluted storm water runoff can be harmful to plants, animals, and
people.

Runoff can carry a lot of sediment

When storms hit and stream flows increase, the sediment moved into the river by runoff can
end up being seen from hundreds of miles up by satellites. The right-side pictures shows the
aftermath of Hurricane Irene in Florida in October 1999. Sediment-filled rivers are dumping
tremendous amounts of suspended sediment into the Atlantic Ocean. The sediment being
dumped into the oceans has an effect on the ecology of the oceans, both in a good and bad
way. And, this is one of the ways that the oceans have become what they are: salty.
 
 
Florida, Oct. 14, 1999. When Hurricane Irene passed over Florida in 1999, the heavy rainfall
over land caused extensive amounts of runoff that first entered Florida's rivers which then
dumped the runoff water, containing lots of sediment, into the Atlantic Ocean.
(Credit: NASA Visible Earth.)
Florida, Dec. 16, 2002. The east coast of Florida is mostly clear of sediment from runoff. The
shallow coastal waters to the west of Florida are very turbid (sediment-filled), perhaps from a
storm that passed over a few days earlier.

NUMERICALS