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Precipitation
• All form of water that reach the earth from the
atmosfere.
Department of Civil Engineering • Form of precipitation: rain, snaw, sleet, hail, etc.
University of Malaya

Course Code :KAEA 2155/ KIA 2005 Uses of Precipitation Data

 Runoff estimation analysis
Course Name :Water Resources  Groundwater recharge analysis
Chapter 2 :Precipitation  Water balance studies of catchments
 Flood analysis for design of hydraulic structures
 Flood estimation, forecasting, flood mitigation, etc.
 low flow studies
Prepared By :AP. Dr. Lai Sai Hin  Etc.

Mechanism Producing Precipitation
Three mechanisms are needed for formation of
precipitation.
1. Lifting and Cooling - Lifting of air mass to higher
altitudes causes cooling of air.
2. Condensation - conversion of water vapor into liquid
droplets.
3. Droplet Formation - Growth of droplets is required if
the liquid water present in a cloud is to reach ground
against the lifting mechanism of air.
Self reading
Types of Precipitation
Depending upon the way in which the air is lifted and
cooled so as to cause precipitation:
• Cyclonic Precipitation
• Convective Precipitation
• Orographic Precipitation
Front: A front is the interface of two distinct air masses. When a
warm air mass and a cool air mass meet, the warmer air mass is
lifted over the colder one with the formation of a front. The
ascending warmer air cools adiabatically with the consequent
formation of clouds and precipitation.

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Self reading Self reading

Types of Precipitation Types of Precipitation
Frontal precipitation
1 Cyclonic Precipitation:
Cold front:
- caused by lifting of an air mass due to pressure - a colder, denser air mass lifts the warm, moist air ahead of it.
difference. - As the air rises, it cools and its moisture condenses to produce clouds and
precipitation.
- Cyclonic precipitation may be either frontal or non- - Due to the steep slope of a cold front, forceful rising motion is often
frontal cyclonic precipitation. produced, leading to the development of showers and occasionally severe
thunderstorms

1a Frontal precipitation:
- Results from the lifting of warm and moist air on
one side of a frontal surface over colder, denser air
on the other side.
- A front may be warm front or cold front depending
upon whether there is active or passive accent of
warm air mass over cold air mass.

Self reading Self reading

Types of Precipitation Types of Precipitation
Frontal precipitation
Warm front: 1b. Non-frontal precipitation:
- The warm, less dense air rises up and over the colder air ahead of the front. - If low pressure occurs in an area (called cyclone), air will flow
- The air cools as it rises and its moisture condenses to produce clouds and horizontally from the surrounding area (high pressure), causing the air
precipitation.
in the low-pressure area to lift.
- Warm fronts have a gentler slope and generally move more slowly than cold fronts, so
the rising motion along warm fronts is much more gradual.
- When the lifted warm-air cools down at higher attitude, non-frontal
- Precipitation that develops in advance of a surface warm front is typically steady and cyclonic precipitation will occur.
more widespread than precipitation associated with a cold front.
- Warm front precipitation is generally light to moderate.

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Self reading Self reading

Types of Precipitation
2. Convective Precipitation
- Caused by natural rising of warmer, lighter air in
colder, denser surroundings.
- Normally occurs in tropics, where on a hot day, the
ground surface gets heated unequally, causing the
warmer air to lift up as the colder air comes to take
its place.
- The vertical air currents develop tremendous
velocities.
- Convective precipitation occurs in the form of
showers of high intensity and short duration.
- E.g. normally occurs at coastal area
Types of Precipitation
3. Orographic Precipitation
- Caused by air masses which strike some natural
topographic barriers like mountains, and cannot
move forward and hence rise up, causing
condensation and precipitation.
- All the precipitation in Himalayan region is because
of this nature. It is rich in moisture because of their
long travel over oceans.
- e.g. Taiping ???

Measurement of Precipitation Measurement of Precipitation

• Precipitation is normally collected and measured in a 2a. Tipping Bucket Type
raingauge. - Consists of a funnel that collects
and channels the precipitation into
• Two categories:
a small seesaw-like container.
1. Non-recording rain gauges - After an amount of precipitation
- Do not record the rain but collect the rain. equal to 0.2 mm (0.007 in) falls, the
- usually provide reading as mm/day lever tips, dumping the collected
- e.g.: Symons’ guage
water and sending an electrical
2. Recording rain gauges signal.
- Used to determine rates of rainfall - The tipping bucket rain gauge is not
over periods of time.
- provide valuable data of intensity
as accurate as the standard rain
and duration of rainfall for gauge because the rainfall may
hydrological analysis of storms. stop before the lever has tipped.
- Three types in common use are:
a. Tipping Bucket Type
b. Weighing Type
c. Float Type

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Measurement of Precipitation Measurement of Precipitation

Telemetering Raingauges Radar Measurement of Rainfall
- Contain electronic units to transmit the data - A powerfull instrument for measuring areal extent, location and
on rainfall to a base station at regular movement of rainstorms, with good degree of accuracy.
intervals. - Provide forecasted weather, i.e. in TV
- The tipping-bucket type raingauge, being - Useful for flood warning, navigation, atc.
ideally suited, is usually adopted for this
purpose.
- Telemetering gauges are of utmost use in
Raingauge Network
gathering rainfall data, in particular from - Catching area of a raingauge is small compared to areal extent of a
mountainous and generally inaccessible storm.
places. - To get a representative picture (e.g. amount) of a storm over a
0.02
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
0
catchment, the number of raingauges should be as large as possible.
5
- In ideal, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recommends:
Discharge (m3/s)

0.015

0.01
10 In flat regions, 1 station for 600 – 900 km2
0.005
15
In mountainous Region, 1 station for 100 – 250 km2
20

0 25
- 10% of raingauge stations should be equiped with self recorded gauges
0 10 20 30 40 50
Time (Minute)
60 70 80
to know the intensity of rainfall
Rainfall
Beginning of rainfall at time 17:17
Subsurface Discharge

Joke of the day Joke of the day

An old man walks into a bar, sits down, and starts crying. Two elderly couples were enjoying friendly conversation when one of
The bartender asks, “What’s wrong?” The old man looks at the the men asked the other,”
bartender through teary eyes and between sobs says, Fred, how was the memory clinic you went to last month?"
“I married a beautiful woman two days ago. She’s a natural blonde, "Outstanding," Fred replied. "They taught us all the latest
twenty-five, intelligent, a marvelous cook, a meticulous housekeeper, psychological techniques: visualization, association, etc. It was
my best friend, and ……..” great."
The bartender stares at the old man for a brief moment and says, "That's great! and what was the name of the clinic?"
“But that sounds great! You have what every man wants in a woman, Fred went blank. He thought and thought, but couldn't remember.
so why are crying?” Then a smile broke across his face and he asked,
The old man looks at the bartender and says, "What do you call that flower with the long stem and thorns?"
“I can’t remember where I live!” "You mean a rose?"
"Yes, that's it!" He turned to his wife,
"Rose, what was the name of that memory clinic?"

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Preparation of Data: Preparation of Data:

Estimation of Missing Precipitation Data Estimation of Missing Precipitation Data
- Before using the rainfall records of a station, it is necessary to check the
data for continuity (Missing Data) and consistency.
- Reason for Missing Data??? out of battery? instrument failure?
Maintenance?
How if 5000
- Reason for inconsistency??? Calibration? for 1 hour?

How if 15 for
1 weeks ?

Preparation of Data: Preparation of Data:

Estimation of Missing Precipitation Data Estimation of Missing Precipitation Data
- Data from surrounding gauges are used to estimate the missing data.
- The Normal Rainfall is used as a standard of comparison. The normal
rainfall is an averaged value of rainfall at a particular date, month, or year
over a spesified 30-year period. The 30-year normals are recomputed
every decade.
- Three approaches are used:
Given Station with missing data is Px
Neighbouring stations are = P1, P2, P3..... Pm
Normal Annual (monthly) Precipitation = N1, N2, N3...... Nx.... Nm

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Preparation of Data: Preparation of Data:

Estimation of Missing Precipitation Data Estimation of Missing Precipitation Data
1. Arithmetic mean: 3. Reciprocal Inverse Weighting Factor Approach
- Use when normal annual precipitation at various stations are within 10% of - Procedure:
the normal annual precipitation at station X. Than a simple arithmetic Divide area around gauge of interest into four quadrants
average procedure can be used. Using records at nearest station in each quadrant
Compute missing precipitation amount:
1
𝑃𝑥 = 𝑃1 + 𝑃2 + 𝑃3 + ⋯ . +𝑃𝑚
𝑚 1 4 𝑃𝑖
𝑃𝑥 = 4 1/𝑋 𝑖=1 𝑋
2. The Normal ratio method: 𝑖=1 𝑖 𝑖

- Normal ratio method (NRM) is used when the normal annual precipitation
at any of the index station differs from that of the interpolation station by Where:
more than 10%. In this method, the precipitation amounts at the index Pi = rainfall recorded by gauge i
stations are weighted by the ratios of their normal annual precipitation Xi= distance from gauge i to missing data point
data in a relationship of the form:
Check for
𝑁𝑥 𝑃1 𝑃2 𝑃3 𝑃𝑚
𝑃𝑥 = + + + ⋯.+ % of Difference=
𝑁𝑖 −𝑁𝑥
𝑥100
𝑚 𝑁1 𝑁2 𝑁3 𝑁𝑚 𝑁𝑥

Example 1: Preparation of Data:

The normal Annual Rainfall at stations A, B, C and D in a basin are 80.97, 67.59,
76.28, and 92.01 respectively. In the year 2005, the Station D was inoperative Test for Consistency of Record
and the stations A, B and C recorded annual precipitation of 91.11, 72.23, and
- Incocsistency due to significant change in recorded data from a raingauge.
79.89 respectively. Estimate the rainfall at Station D in that year.
- Reason for inconsistency of record are:
- Shifting of a raingauge station to a new location
Solution:
- The neighbourhood of the station undergoing a marked change
- The distance of Station A, B and C from Station D are not given, therefore, only
- Calibration???
Method 1 and 2 can be used.
- Checking for inconsistency through Double-Mass Curve technique.
- Check for the different of normal annual precipitation of Station A, B and C
- A group of 5-10 neighbourhood stations of the problem Station X to be
against Station D. In this case the different is found more than 10%.
selected.
Therefore use Method 2.
- compute cumulative rainfall amounts for suspect gauge and check gauges
- plot cumulative rainfall amounts against each other (divergence from a
92.01 91.11 72.23 79.89
𝑃𝐷 = 𝑥 + + = 99.48𝑐𝑚 straight line indicates error)
3 80.79 67.59 76.28 - multiplying erroneous data after change by a correction factor/ratio

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Preparation of Data: Example 2:

Annual rainfall data for station M as well as the averaged annual rainfall values for
Test for Consistency of Record a group of ten neighbouring stations located in a meteorologically homogenous
region are given below.

X Test the consistency of the annual rainfall data of station M and correct the
record if there is any discrepency. Estimate the mean annual precipitation at
station M.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Solution: Adjusted Pm Finalized Pm
Year Pm (mm) SPm (mm) Pav (mm) SPav (mm) (mm) (mm) Solution:
Calculate ∑Pm 1950 676 676 780 780 676 Calculate ∑Pm
Calculate ∑Pav 1951 578 1254 660 1440 578
1952 95 1349 110 1550 95 Calculate ∑Pav
Plot double mass curve 1953 462 1811 520 2070 462
1954 472 2283 540 2610 472
Plot double mass curve
Change in regime of station M 1955 699 2982 800 3410 699 Change in regime of station M after 1968
after 1968 1956 479 3461 540 3950 479
1957 431 3892 490 4440 431 Correction ratio = 4993/5803 = 0.86
Correction ratio = 4993/5803 1958 493 4385 560 5000 493 Adjust the annual rainfall value after 1968
= 0.86 1959 503 4888 575 5575 503
1960 415 5303 480 6055 415
Adjust the annual rainfall 1961 531 5834 600 6655 531
1962 504 6338 580 7235 504
value after 1968 1963 828 7166 950 8185 828
1964 679 7845 770 8955 679
1965 1244 9089 1400 10355 1244
1966 999 10088 1140 11495 999
1967 573 10661 650 12145 573
1968 596 11257 646 12791 596
1969 375 11632 350 13141 322.5 323
1970 635 12267 590 13731 546.1 546
1971 497 12764 490 14221 427.42 427
1972 386 13150 400 14621 331.96 332
1973 438 13588 390 15011 376.68 377
1974 568 14156 570 15581 488.48 488
1975 356 14512 377 15958 306.16 306
1976 685 15197 653 16611 589.1 589
1977 825 16022 787 17398 709.5 710
1978 426 16448 410 17808 366.36 366
1979 612 17060 588 18396 526.32 526
Total of Pm = 16248
Mean of Pm = 542

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Presentation of Rainfall Data Presentation of Rainfall Data

Mass Curve Hyetograph
- Figure below shows a typical mass curve - Plot of intensity against time interval
- Intensity at various time interval in a storm can be obtain by the slope of the - important in the development of design storm to predict extreme flood.
curve. - Important for design and modelling purposes.
- Area below graph represents the total precipitation received in the period.

mass curve earlier

Areal Precipitation Estimation Areal Precipitation Estimation

Hydrological analysis require a knowledge of the rainfall 2. Theissen Method
- Divide the region (area A) into sub-regions centred about each rain
over an area, e.g. over a catchment: gauge;
1. Arithmetic mean method - Determine the area of each sub-region (Ai) and compute sub-region
2. Thiessen method weightings (Wi) using: Wi = Ai/A
- Compute total aerial rainfall using
3. Isohyetal method

1. Arithmetic mean method

If the rainfall measured at various stations in a catchment show little
variation, the average precipitation over the catchment is taken as the
arithmetic mean of the station values.

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Areal Precipitation Estimation Example 4:

2. Theissen Method

Solution:
Areal Precipitation Estimation
3. Isohyetal Method
Potentially most accurate approach, but subjective
- Plot gauge locations on a map;
- Subjectively interpolate between rain amounts between gauges at a
selected interval;
- Connect points of equal rain depth to produce lines of equal rainfall
amounts (isohyets);
- Compute aerial rain using:

- The isohyet method is superior to the other two methods especially

when the stations are large enough

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Example 5:
Areal Precipitation Estimation The isohyets due to a storm in a catchment were drawn and the area of the catchment
bounded by isohyets are tabulated as below. Estimate the mean precipitation due to the
3. Isohyetal Method storm.

Solutin:

Application of IDF will be

IDF Curve IDF Curve covered in Chapter 8
1000
• The total storm rainfall depth at a point, for a given
rainfall duration and ARI, is a function of the local
climate.

Rainfall Intensity (mm/hr)

• Convert rainfall depths into rainfall intensities: 100

intensity = depth/duration
• Present rainfall intensity in IDF curves: 100 yr
10
50 yr
intensity, duration, frequency 20 yr
10 yr

• IDF curves are useful in stormwater drainage 5 yr

2 yr

design 1 yr ARI

1
10 100 1000
Duration (minutes)

IDF Curves for Kuala Lumpur

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Application of IDF will be Calculation will be

IDF Curve covered in Chapter 8 IDF Curve covered in Chapter 8

IDF Curves for Selected Cities and Towns Empirical IDF Curves
• MSMA (DID, 2000) have maximum rainfall intensity- • To minimize error in estimating rainfall intensity
duration-frequency curves for: values from IDF curves.
26 areas in Peninsular Malaysia 𝑇 𝐾
𝑖=
10 urban areas in East Malaysia (Sabah and 𝑑+  
Sarawak), i = Average rainfall intensity (mm/hr)
• MSMA2 (DID, 2012) have 71 IDF curves for Peninsular T = Average Recurrence interval – ARI
Malaysia (Annexure 3) ( 0.5  T  12 month and 2  T  100 year)
• These curves will cover the needs of the majority of d = Storm duration (hours), 0.0833  d  72
users of this Manual.
, K, ,  = Fitting constants dependent on the
• Please refer to Chapter 13, MSMA (DID, 2000) and raingaugelocation (Table 2.B1 in Appendix 2.B,
Chapter 2, MSMA2 (DID, 2012) pg: 2-79)

IDF Curve
Polynomial Approximation of IDF Curves
• IDF Constants (2  T  100 year)
• Please refer to MSMA2 (DID, 2012) Table 2.B1 in
Appendix 2.B, pg: 2-79
Calculation will be
covered in Chapter 8 Frequency of Point Rainfall
- The probability of occurrence of a particular extreme rainfall is
important for Hydraulic-engineering application.
- Obtained by frequency analysis of point-rainfall data.
- The extreme values of a specific event occurring in each year is
listed, e.g. list the maximum 24-h maximum rainfall occurring in a
year at a station.
- Equally applicable to any other random hydrological processes,
e.g. stream flow (Chapter 8).
- The probability of occurrence of an event equal to or in excess of
a specified magnitude X is denoted by P
- The recurrence interval (also known as return period) is defined
by
T = 1/P

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Frequency of Point Rainfall Frequency of Point Rainfall

- Represent the average interval between the occurrence of a - For Example:
rainfall of magnitude of equal of greater than X.
- The return period of rainfall of 20 cm in 24-h is 10 year at a
certain station A, it implies that on an average rainfall
magnitudes equal to or greater than 20 cm in 24 h occur once in
10 years.
- If the probability of an event occurring is P, the probability of the
event not occurring in a given year is
q=1–P
- The probability of occurrence of the event r times in n successive
years

Example 6: Plotting Position

- A simple technique to arrange the given annual extreme series in
descending order of magnitude and to assign an order number
m, till the last event for which m = N = number of years of record.
Solution: - The probablibility of P of an event equaled to or exceeded given
by the Weibull formula

- The recurrence interval

- Plot on a semi-log paper, the rainfall magnitude of specific

duration for any recurrence interval can be estimated.

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Example 7: Solution:
- Arrange the data in descending order.
- Rank the rainfall data
- Probability, P of event being equaled to or exceed is calculated using Weibull Formula.
- Plot graph on a semi-log paper

Solution:
Assignment
1. Test the consistency of the 22 years of data of the annual precipitation measured at Station A.
Rainfall data for Station A as well as the averaged annual rainfall measured at a group of eight
neighbouring stations located in a meteorologically homogeneous region are as given below.

Annual Averaged Annual Averaged

Rainfall of Annual Rainfall Rainfall of Annual Rainfall
Year Year
Station A of 8 Station Station A of 8 Station
(mm) groups (mm) (mm) groups (mm)
1946 177 143 1957 158 164
1947 144 132 1958 145 155
1948 178 146 1959 132 143
1949 162 147 1960 95 115
1950 194 161 1961 148 135
1951 168 155 1962 142 163
1952 196 152 1963 140 135
From the graph:
1953 144 117 1964 130 143
(ai) For T = 10 yr, by interpolation of T = 11.5 and T = 7.667,
1954 160 128 1965 137 130
The expected rainfall magnitude = 137.9 cm (why not to obtained from graph?) 1955 196 193 1966 130 146
(aii) For T = 50, By extrapolation from graph, 1956 141 156 1967 163 160
The expected rainfall magnitude = 188 cm
(b) By interpolation, the return period for rainfall equal to or exceeding 100 cm = 2.4 yr, Solution: Correction ratio = 1.271
P = 1/T = 1/2.4 = 0.417 Year of change in regime = 1957

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Assignment Assignment
2. In a storm of 210 minutes duration, the incremental rainfall at various time intervals is given 3. The record of annual rainfall at a place is available for 25 years. Plot the curve of annual rainfall
below. magnitude vs recurrence interval and by suitable interpolation, estimate the magnitude of rainfall
at the station that would correspond to a recurrence interval of (a) 50 years and (b) 100 years.
Time since start of the storm
30 60 90 120 150 180 210
(Minutes)
Incremental rainfall in the time
1.75 2.25 6.00 4.50 2.50 1.50 0.75 Year Annual Rainfall (cm) Year Annual Rainfall (cm)
interval (cm)
1950 113.0 1963 68.6
(a) Obtain the ordinates of the hyetograph and represent the hyrtograph as a bar chart with 1951 94.5 1964 82.5
time in chronological order in the x-axis. 1952 76.0 1965 90.7
(b) Obtain the ordinates of the mass curve of rainfall for this storm and plot the same. What is 1953 87.5 1966 99.8
the average intensity of the storm over the duration of the storm. 1954 92.7 1967 74.4
1955 71.3 1968 66.6
1956 77.3 1969 65.0
Solution: (b) average intensity = 5.5 cm/hr 1957 85.1 1970 91.0
1958 122.8 1971 106.8
1959 69.4 1972 102.2
1960 81.0 1973 87.0
1961 94.5 1974 84.0
1962 86.3 1975

Solution: (a) 132.5 cm, (b) 143.0 cm

Thank You

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