CE 374K Hydrology

Lecture 5: Precipitation
• Precipitation mechanisms
• Rainall maps
• Rainfall hyetographs
• Nexrad measurement of rainfall
• Reading for today – Applied Hydrology, Sec 3.3
and 3.4
• Reading for Thursday – Applied Hydrology, Sec
3.5 and 3.6
Wind Map
http://hint.fm/wind/gallery/
 Ocean Currents

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNppEPKt52E
 Precipitation
• Precipitation: water falling from the
atmosphere to the earth.
– Rainfall
– Snowfall
– Hail, sleet
• Requires lifting of air mass so that it cools and
condenses.
 Mechanisms for air lifting
1. Frontal lifting
2. Orographic lifting
3. Convective lifting
 Frontal Lifting
• Boundary between air masses with different properties is
called a front
• Cold front occurs when cold air advances towards warm air
• Warm front occurs when warm air overrides cold air

Cold front (produces cumulus cloud) Warm front (produces stratus cloud)
 Orographic lifting
Orographic uplift occurs when air is forced to rise because of the physical
presence of elevated land.
 Convective lifting
Convective precipitation occurs when the air near the ground is heated by
the earth’s warm surface. This warm air rises, cools and creates
precipitation.

Hot earth
surface
 Condensation
• Condensation is the change of water vapor into a
liquid. For condensation to occur, the air must be at
or near saturation in the presence of condensation
nuclei.
• Condensation nuclei are small particles or aerosol
upon which water vapor attaches to initiate
condensation. Dust particulates, sea salt, sulfur and
nitrogen oxide aerosols serve as common
condensation nuclei.
• Size of aerosols range from 10-3 to 10 mm.
 Precipitation formation
• Lifting cools air masses so
moisture condenses
• Condensation nuclei
– Aerosols
– water molecules
attach
• Rising & growing
– 0.5 cm/s sufficient to
carry 10 mm droplet
– Critical size (~0.1 mm)
– Gravity overcomes
and drop falls
 Shape of a Falling Raindrop

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6071/925/F1.large.jpg
 Forces acting on rain drop
• Three forces acting on rain D

drop
– Gravity force due to weight Fb
Fd Fd
– Buoyancy force due to Fg
displacement of air
– Drag force due to friction 
Volume  D3
with surrounding air 6

Area  D2
4
 
Fg   w g D3 Fb   a g D3
6 6

V2 2  V
2
Fd  Cd  a A  Cd  a D
2 4 2
 Terminal Velocity
• Terminal velocity: velocity at which the forces acting on the raindrop are
in equilibrium.
• If released from rest, the raindrop will accelerate until it reaches its
terminal velocity
 Fvert  0  FB  FD  W
2 D

3 2V  
  a g D  Cd  a D   w g D3
6 4 2 6

FD  FB  W
Fb
4 gD   w  Fd Fd
 2 Vt2   Vt    1
Cd  a D  a g D3  w g D3 3C d   a Fg
4 2 6 6 

At standard atmospheric pressure (101.3 kpa) and temperature (20 oC),

rw = 998 kg/m3 and ra = 1.20 kg/m3 V

• Raindrops are spherical up to a diameter of 1 mm

• For tiny drops up to 0.1 mm diameter, the drag force is specified by
Stokes law
24  aVD
Cd  Re 
Re a
Terminal Velocity of a Raindrop

http://commons.wikimedia.org/?title=File:Rain_drop_terminal_velocity_chart.jpg
Rainfall Measurement – Tipping Bucket
Bucket tips for each 0.01 inches of rain

http://meiyu.atmphys.howard.edu/instru.htm#
 Exterior of a tipping bucket gage

20 cm diameter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Exterior_tipping_bucket.JPG
Rainfall patterns in the US
Global precipitation pattern
 Spatial Representation
• Isohyet – contour of constant rainfall
• Isohyetal maps are prepared by interpolating
rainfall data at gaged points.

Austin, May 1981 Wellsboro, PA 1889

Texas Rainfall Maps
Current Rainfall in Texas

http://
water.weather.gov/precip/index.php?yday=1359331200&yday_analysis=0&l
ayer%5B%5D=0&layer%5B%5D=1&layer%5B%5D=4&timetype=RECENT&loct
ype=STATE&units=engl&timeframe=last60days&product=observed&loc=stat
eTX
Percent of Normal Rainfall in Texas

http://
water.weather.gov/precip/index.php?yday=1359331200&yday_analysis=0&l
ayer%5B%5D=0&layer%5B%5D=1&layer%5B%5D=4&timetype=RECENT&loct
ype=STATE&units=engl&timeframe=last60days&product=observed&loc=stat
eTX
 Temporal Representation
• Rainfall hyetograph – plot of rainfall depth or
intensity as a function of time
• Cumulative rainfall hyetograph or rainfall
mass curve – plot of summation of rainfall
increments as a function of time
• Rainfall intensity – depth of rainfall per unit
time
Rainfall Depth and Intensity
Running Totals
Time (min) Rainfall (in) Cumulative 30 min 1h 2h
Rainfall (in)
0 0
5 0.02 0.02
10 0.34 0.36
15 0.1 0.46
20 0.04 0.5
25 0.19 0.69
30 0.48 1.17 1.17
35 0.5 1.67 1.65
40 0.5 2.17 1.81
45 0.51 2.68 2.22
50 0.16 2.84 2.34
55 0.31 3.15 2.46
60 0.66 3.81 2.64 3.81
65 0.36 4.17 2.5 4.15
70 0.39 4.56 2.39 4.2
75 0.36 4.92 2.24 4.46
80 0.54 5.46 2.62 4.96
85 0.76 6.22 3.07 5.53
90 0.51 6.73 2.92 5.56
95 0.44 7.17 3 5.5
100 0.25 7.42 2.86 5.25
105 0.25 7.67 2.75 4.99
110 0.22 7.89 2.43 5.05
115 0.15 8.04 1.82 4.89
120 0.09 8.13 1.4 4.32 8.13
125 0.09 8.22 1.05 4.05 8.2
130 0.12 8.34 0.92 3.78 7.98
135 0.03 8.37 0.7 3.45 7.91
140 0.01 8.38 0.49 2.92 7.88
145 0.02 8.4 0.36 2.18 7.71
150 0.01 8.41 0.28 1.68 7.24
Max. Depth 0.76 3.07 5.56 8.2
Max. Intensity 9.12364946 6.14 5.56 4.1
 Incremental Rainfall
0.8

0.7
Incremental Rainfall (in per 5 min)

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150

Time (min)

Rainfall Hyetograph
 Cumulative Rainfall
10

7
Cumulative Rainfall (in.)

5
3.07 in
4 8.2 in

3 30 min
5.56 in
2

1 1 hr

2 hr
0
0 30 60 90 120 150
Time (min.)

Rainfall Mass Curve

 Arithmetic Mean Method
• Simplest method for determining areal average

P1 = 10 mm
P1
P2 = 20 mm
P3 = 30 mm
N
P2
1
P
N
P
i 1
i

P3
10  20  30
P  20 mm
3

• Gages must be uniformly distributed

• Gage measurements should not vary greatly about the
mean
 Thiessen polygon method
• Any point in the watershed receives the same
amount of rainfall as that at the nearest gage P1
• Rainfall recorded at a gage can be applied to any A1
point at a distance halfway to the next station in
any direction P2
• Steps in Thiessen polygon method
A2
1. Draw lines joining adjacent gages
2. Draw perpendicular bisectors to the lines created in P3
step 1 A3
3. Extend the lines created in step 2 in both directions
to form representative areas for gages
4. Compute representative area for each gage
5. Compute the areal average using the following
P1 = 10 mm, A1 = 12 Km2
formula
P2 = 20 mm, A2 = 15 Km2
= 21.7 mm
P3 = 30 mm, A3 = 20 km2
 Isohyetal method
• Steps
– Construct isohyets (rainfall 10
contours)
20
– Compute area between each P1
pair of adjacent isohyets (Ai) A1=5 , p1 = 5
– Compute average precipitation A2=18 , p2 = 15
for each pair of adjacent P2
isohyets (pi) A3=12 , p3 = 25
– Compute areal average using
the following formula
P3
30 A4=12 , p3 = 35
1M N
PP   Ai pA P
i i i
iA
1 i 1

5  5  18 15  12  25  12  35
P  21.6 mm
47
 Inverse distance weighting
• Prediction at a point is more
influenced by nearby measurements
than that by distant measurements P1=10
• The prediction at an ungaged point is
inversely proportional to the distance
to the measurement points P2= 20 d1=25
• Steps
d2=15 P3=30
– Compute distance (di) from ungaged
point to all measurement points. d3=10
p

– Compute the precipitation at the

d12  point
ungaged 2   y1the
x1  x2 using 2
 y2following
formula
N  Pi 
  2
 
i 1  d i 
10
2

20 30
2
 2
ˆ
P
N 
Pˆ  25 15 10  25.24 mm
1  1 1 1
  2
i 1  d i 
 
25 2 152 10 2
Rainfall interpolation in GIS
• Data are generally
available as points with
precipitation stored in
attribute table.
 Rainfall maps in GIS

Nearest Neighbor “Thiessen” Spline Interpolation

Polygon Interpolation
 NEXRAD
• NEXt generation RADar: is a doppler radar used for obtaining weather
information
• A signal is emitted from the radar which returns after striking a rainfall
drop
• Returned signals from the radar are analyzed to compute the rainfall
intensity and integrated over time to get the precipitation

NEXRAD Tower Working of NEXRAD

 NEXRAD WSR-88D Radars in Central Texas
(Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler)
scanning range = 230 km
NEXRAD Products:

Stage I: Just Radar

Stage II: gages,
satellite, and surface
temperature
Stage III:
Continuous mosaic
from radar overlaps

EWX – NEXRAD Radar in New Braunfels

Source: PBS&J, 2003

 NEXRAD data
• NOAA’s Weather and Climate Toolkit (JAVA viewer)
– http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/wct/

• West Gulf River Forecast Center

– http://www.srh.noaa.gov/wgrfc/
• National Weather Service Precipitation
Analysis
– http://www.srh.noaa.gov/rfcshare/precip_analysis_new.php