Cagayan State University–Carig Campus

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

HYDROLOGY LECTURE MODULE 2

Precipitation is the main key of the hydrologic cycle. It restores aquifers, renews soil moisture for
plants, and replenishes surface water bodies. Its principal forms are rain and snow which contribute
significant amount of water and variations of these are hail, drizzle and sleet. The relative importance of
these forms is determined by the climatic factors of the area under consideration such as wind,
temperature, humidity and pressure.

At the end of this lesson, the student will be able to:

1. Define what is precipitation, discuss its forms, and describe its spatial and temporal attributes.
2. Illustrate techniques for estimating areal precipitation amounts for specific storm events and for
maximum precipitation-generating conditions.

Forms of Precipitation

Common forms of precipitation are rain, snow, drizzle, glaze, sleet and hail.
Rain- principal form of precipitation in the form of water drops of size larger than 0.5 mm. The maximum
size of a raindrop is about 6 mm. Any drop larger in size than this tends to break into drops of smaller
sizes during its fall from the clouds. On the basis of its intensity, rainfall is classified as:
Type Intensity
1. Light rain trace to 2.5 mm/h
2. Moderate rain 2.5mm/h to 7.5 mm/h
3. Heavy rain >7.5 mm/h
In the Philippines we have adapted just the same as the above with the following rainfall classification
and measurement as seen in the table below.

Snow- consists of ice crystals which usually combine to form flakes. When fresh, snow has an initial
density varying from 0.06 to 0.15 g/cm3 and average density of 0.1 g/cm3.

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Cagayan State University–Carig Campus
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

HYDROLOGY LECTURE MODULE 2

Drizzle- a fine sprinkle of numerous water droplets of size less than 0.5 mm and intensity less than 1
mm/h. The drops are so small that they appear to float in the air.
Glaze- an ice coating where the water drops freeze when rain or drizzle comes in contact with cold ground
at around 0°C. It is sometimes called freezing rain.
Sleet- it is frozen raindrops of transparent grains which form when rain falls through air at subfreezing
temperature. In Britain, it denotes precipitation of snow and rain simultaneously.
Hail- it is showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or lumps of ice of size more than 8 mm. It
occurs in violent thunderstorms in which vertical currents are very strong.

Formation of Precipitation

The formation of water droplets in clouds is illustrated in Figure 1. Condensation takes place in the
atmosphere on condensation nuclei which are very small particles in the atmosphere that are composed of
dust or salt. These particles are called aerosols. During the initial occurrence of condensation, the
droplets or ice particles are very small and are kept aloft by motion of the air molecules. Once droplets are
formed they also act as condensation nuclei. These droplets tend to repel one another but in the presence
of an electric field in the atmosphere they attract one another and are heavy enough ~0.1𝑚𝑚 to fall
through the atmosphere. Some of the droplets evaporate in the atmosphere, some decrease in size by
evaporation and some increase in size by impact and aggregation.

Figure 1

Precipitation formation is illustrated in Figure 1. Water droplets in clouds are formed by nucleation of
vapor on aerosols then go through many condensation-evaporation cycle as they circulate in the cloud
until they aggregate into large enough drops to fall through the cloud base (from Masch 1987).

Growth of droplets of sufficient mass (about 500 𝑡𝑜 4000 𝜇𝑚 in diameter) which overcome air resistance
and consequently fall to the earth as precipitation involves two processes known as the ice crystal process
and the coalescence process.

Coalescence process- is one by which the small cloud droplets increase their size due to contact with other
droplets through collision. Water droplets may be considered as falling bodies that are subjected to both
gravitational and air resistance effects. Fall velocities at equilibrium (terminal velocities) are proportional
to the square of the radius of the droplet thus the larger the droplets will descend more quickly than the
smaller ones. As a result, smaller droplets are often overtaken by larger droplets and the resulting
collision unite the drops producing increasingly larger particles. Very large drops (order of 7 mm in
diameter) break up into small droplets that repeat the coalescence process and produce chain effect.
Sufficiently large raindrops generate significant precipitation. This process is important particularly in
tropical regions.

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Cagayan State University–Carig Campus
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

HYDROLOGY LECTURE MODULE 2

Ice crystal process- if ice crystals and water droplets are found to exist together at subfreezing
temperatures down to about -40°C. Under these conditions, certain particles of clay minerals and organic
and ordinary ocean salts serve as freezing nuclei so that ice crystals are formed. The vapor pressure
under these conditions is higher over the water droplets than over the ice crystals and thus condensation
occurs on the surface of the crystals. The ice crystals grow in size and uneven particle size distributions
develop which favor growth through contact with other particles. This is considered to be a very
important precipitation-producing mechanism.

The formation of precipitation requires the lifting of an air mass in the atmosphere so that it cools and
some of its moisture condenses.

Types of Precipitation

Cyclonic Precipitation
It is associated with the movement of air masses from high-pressure regions to low-pressure regions.
These pressure differences are created by the unequal heating of the earth’s surface. Cyclonic
precipitation has two classifications as follows:
Frontal type: Front is a boundary joining warm air moist air mass resulting in the precipitation of
moist air mass. Frontal precipitation results from the lifting of warm air over cold air at the
contact zone between masses having different characteristics.
Non frontal type: Cold air mass moves whereas moist air mass is stationary.
Warm front-if the air masses are moving so that warm air replaces colder air
Cold front-on the other hand, cold air displaces warm air
Stationary front-if the front is not in motion
Figure 2 illustrates a vertical cross section through a frontal surface. Cyclonic storms in
midlatitude is illustrated in Figure 3 (from Masch 1984).

Figure 2

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Cagayan State University–Carig Campus
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

HYDROLOGY LECTURE MODULE 2

Figure 3

Cyclone -is a large low pressure region with circular wind motion.
Two Types of Cyclone:

Tropical cyclone-is a wind system with an intensely strong depression with MSL pressures
sometimes below 915 mbars. It is also called cylone in India, hurricane in USA and typhoon
in South-East Asia.
The normal areal extent of a cyclone is about 100-200 km in diameter. The isobars are
closely spaced and the winds are counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere. The center
of the storm called the eye which may extend to about 10-50 km in diameter which is
relatively quiet. Right outside the eye, winds are very strong reaching to as much as 200
kph. The wind speed gradually decreases towards the outer edge. The pressure also
increases outwards. The rainfall is normally heavy in the entire area occupied by the
cyclone. Figure 4 shows a schematic section of a tropical cyclone.

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Cagayan State University–Carig Campus
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

HYDROLOGY LECTURE MODULE 2

Figure 4

Extratropical Cyclone-formed outside the tropical zone which possess a strong counter-
clockwise wind circulation in the northern hemisphere associated with a frontal system.
The magnitude of precipitation and wind velocities are relatively lower than those of
tropical cyclone but is usually longer and the areal extent is larger.

Anticyclone-region of high pressure usually of large areal extent. The weather is usually calm at
the center. It causes clockwise wind circulations in the northern hemisphere. Winds are of
moderate speed, and at the outer edges, cloudy and precipitation exist.

Convective Precipitation
It is caused by the upward movement of the air that is warmer than its surroundings. Generally, it occurs
in tropics where on a hot day ground surface gets unequally heated causing the warmer air to lift up and
the colder air comes to replace it. At higher altitudes it gets cooled and precipitates.
It is typical of the tropics and is brought about by heating of the air at the interface with the ground. This
heated air expands with a resultant reduction in weight. During this period, increasing quantities of
water vapor are taken up; the warm moisture-laden air becomes unstable; and pronounced vertical
currents are developed. Dynamic cooling takes place, causing condensation and precipitation. Convective
precipitation may be in the form of light showers or storms of extremely high intensity (typical example
thunderstorms). Figure 5 is an illustration of convective storm (from Masch 1984).

Figure 5

Orographic Precipitation

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Cagayan State University–Carig Campus
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

HYDROLOGY LECTURE MODULE 2

When moving warm air is obstructed by some barriers such as mountain, the moist air mass finds its way
upwards where it gets cooled and precipitates.
Orographic precipitation results from the mechanical lifting of moist horizontal air currents over natural
barriers such as mountain ranges. Important factors in this process include land elevation, local slope,
orientation of land slop, and distance from the moisture source. In dealing with this, it is common to
divide the region under study into zones for which influences aside from elevation are believed to be
reasonably constant. For each of these zones, a relation between rainfall and elevation is developed for
use in producing isohyetal maps. Figure 6 illustrates an orographic storm (from Masch 1984).

Figure 6

Bedient, P.B., Huber W.C. and Vieux, B.E. (2010). Hydrology and Floodplain Analysis. (4th Edition). Pearson.

David Chin. (2013). Water Resources Engineering. (3rd Edition). Pearson.

McCuen, R.H. (1989). Hydrologic Analysis and Design. Prentice Hall.

Linsley, R.K., M.A. Kohler and J.L.H. Paulhus. (1988). Hydrology for Engineers. McGraw-Hill.

VenTe Chow, David Maidment and Larry Mays. (1988). Applied Hydrology. (Internation Edition). McGraw-
Hill.

ASCE. (1996). Hydrology Handbook. (2nd Edition).

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