CEL251 Hydrology

Precipitation
Definition:
The term precipitation denotes all forms of water that reach the earth surface from the
atmosphere. The usual forms are rainfall, snowfall, hail, frost and dew. Precipitation is the
natural stating point for the hydrologic cycle and main input to the hydrologic systems.
Precipitation Process
When the right temperature and pressure conditions exist, water vapour in the atmosphere
will condense to water droplets, water droplets accumulate to large enough size, and the
gravity pulls the droplets to the earth surface as precipitation. For precipitation to occur, some
mechanism is required to cool the air sufficiently to bring it to or near saturation. The large
scale cooling needed for significant amounts of precipitation is achieved by lifting the air. If
the moist air is lifted adiabatically its temperature will decrease, at certain level air become
saturated. Saturation however does not necessarily lead to precipitation. Similarly,
atmospheric moisture is a necessary but not sufficient condition for precipitation. Necessary
steps involved in precipitation formation are
1.) Presence of moisture in the atmosphere
2.) Cooling of the air to the dew point temperature by air lifting mechanism
3.) Condensation on nuclei to form cloud droplets
4.) Growth of droplets into raindrops under favourable weather conditions
5.) Importation of water vapour to sustain the process.
Presence of Moisture in the Atmosphere
Precipitation is derived from atmospheric water vapour. Moisture is always present in the
atmosphere even on cloudless days. Atmospheric moisture is derived from evaporation and
transpiration. Atmospheric water mostly exits as gas, or vapour, but briefly and locally it
becomes a liquid in rainfall and in water droplets in clouds, or it becomes a solid in snowfall,
in hail, and in ice crystals in clouds. The fraction of water vapour in the atmosphere is very
small compared to quantities of other gases present, but it is exceedingly important to our
way of life. Also the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere is less than 1 part in 100,000
of all the waters of the earth, but it plays a vital role in the hydrologic cycle.
Humidity and vapour pressure are measures of the amount of water present in the
atmosphere. In any mixture of gases, each gas exerts a partial pressure independent of the
other gases. The partial pressure exerted by water vapour is called vapour pressure (e). It is
measured in: (a) inch or cm of mercury (Hg), (b) millibar (mb), or (c) SI units kilopascals
(kPa) = 1000 N/m2 = 10 mb = 0.295 inch Hg. Total air pressure (pa) is the sum of dry air
pressure (pd) and water vapor pressure (e). Water vapor pressure is typically 1-2% of total air
pressure. The maximum amount of water vapour that can exist in any space is a function of
temperature and is practically independent of the coexistence of other gases. When the
maximum amount of water vapour for a given temperature is contained in a given space, the
space is said to be saturated. The pressure exerted by the vapour in a saturated space is called
the saturation vapour pressure (es). At the saturation vapour pressure, the rates of
evaporation and condensation are equal. Condensation occurs when the actual vapour

pressure exceeds the saturation vapour pressure. An approximate equation widely used for
the saturation pressure es is
17.27 T
es = 610.78 exp

237.3 + T
where es is in Pa and T is in C. The slope of the saturated vapour pressure curve can be
found by differentiating this equation

d es
4098 es
=
dT
(237.3 + T ) 2

Vapour pressure is one measure of how much amount of water present in the atmosphere:
higher vapour pressure, more water vapour (moister) for a given temperature. Two other
measures of air moisture content are relative humidity and dew point temperature. The
relative humidity (Rh) is the ratio of the actual vapour pressure to its saturation vapour
pressure at a given air temperature ie Rh = e e s . In other words it is a ratio or percentage of
the amount of moisture in a given space to the amount the space could contain if saturated.
The specific humidity qv is the mass of water vapour per unit mass of moist air and is equals
the ratio of the densities of water vapour v and moist air a ie q v = v a .Since

v = e RvT = 0.622e Rd T ; d = ( p e) Rd T and a = v + d = ( p 0.378e) Rd T so it

can also be given by q v = 0.622 e ( p 0.378e) 0.622 e p , where p = total pressure exerted
by moist air and 0.622 = ratio of the molecular weight of water vapour to the average
molecular weight of dry air. The dewpoint temperature Td is the temperature at which space
becomes saturated when air is cooled under constant pressure and with constant water vapour
content. It is the temperature giving an es equal to the existing e. That is why although it is
called dewpoint temperature, it is actually a measure of moisture content. With the known
temperature versus es relationship, given dewpoint, the actual e can be determined as

17.27 Td
e = 610.78 exp
237.3 + Td

Psychrometer is used to measurement of vapor pressure. It consists of two identical glass

thermometers in which one has a wet fabric applied to the liquid bulb and a fan blows air
over the thermometers. Dry-bulb thermometer measures air temperature, while the wet-bulb
thermometer measures dew point temperature as the wet bulb temperature is reduced due to
evaporation.
e = es (t a t w )
where ta = dry-bulb temperature C, tw = wet-bulb temperature C, es = saturation vapor
pressure corresponding to the wet-bulb temperature, = 66 Pa /C psychrometer constant.
Vaporization removes heat from the liquid being vaporized, while condensation adds heat.
The latent heat of vaporization is the amount of heat absorbed by a unit mass of a substance,
without change in temperature, while passing from liquid to the vapour state. The change
from vapour to the liquid state requires an equivalent amount of heat. The latent heat of
vaporization varies with temperature which is in calories per gram and in joules per kilogram
are
Lhv = 597.3 0.564 T and Lhv = 2.501 10 6 2370 T
respectively wherein T is in C.

Cooling of Air by Air Lifting Mechanism

The ideal gas law: p = RT where p = pressure, = density of gas, T = absolute temperature
K, and R = gas constant (depends on the molecular weight of the gas = 287 J/kg.K for air).
This indicates that there is decrease in pressure with decrease in temperature and density (and
vice versa). Water vapor can be considered an ideal gas. Adiabatic process is one in which
there is no heat exchange with the environment. Adiabatic processes in the atmosphere when a parcel of air is lifted up, the surrounding pressure decreases and the parcel expand.
According to the ideal gas law, temperature will decrease. Rate of change in temperature with
altitude is known as Lapse rate. An unsaturated parcel of air cools at the dry adiabatic lapse
rate of 10C/1000m. When condensation begins, latent heat is released, partly offsetting the
cooling. The wet adiabatic lapse rate depends on the humidity of the air, but is in the range of
5-9 C/1000m. The actual lapse rate for a given location/time is called Environmental lapse
rate. The average rate of temperature change in the troposphere is 6.5 C/1000m

Air mass may be lifted in the atmosphere by (1) Orographic lifting, (2) Frontal lifting, (3)
Convergence, and (4) Convective lifting mechanisms as shown in Figure.

Altitude

In convective lifting there is uneven heating of the

ground and the air just above it. So the warm air
pockets become buoyant and rise and expand due
to decreased pressure and resulting adiabatic
cooling. The moisture is provided by intense
evapotranspiration. For example Surface heated
from T0 to T1
Surface air is warmer than
surrounding air and will rise
The rising air will
initially cool at the dry adiabatic lapse rate
IF
the condensation level is not reached before point
S, the vertical rise will cease as S and there will be

Wet adiabatic
lapse rate

Condensation
begins

Dry adiabatic
lapse rate
Environmental
lapse rate

T0

T1

Temperature

no precipitation
IF
condensation
occurs
before point S, air will
cool at the wet adiabatic
lapse rate and continue
to rise and Precipitation
will occur.

Condensation on nuclei
Condensation requires a seed called a condensation nucleus around which the water
molecules attach or nucleate themselves. These nuclei are small particles of various
substances usually ranging 10-3 to 10 m (aerosols), products of combustion, oxides of
nitrogen, salt particles, clay/dust minerals. Salt particles are most effective as a condensation
nuclei (Rh = 75%) and clay minerals (kaolin) as freezing nuclei. Pure water droplets may
remain in the liquid state to temperatures as low as -40C.
Growth of droplets into raindrops
Upon nucleation the droplets or ice
crystals grows to visible size in a
fraction of a second through
diffusion of water vapour to it but
growth
thereafter
is
slow.
Diffusion by itself leads only to
fog or cloud elements tend
generally smaller than 10 m in
diameter. While cloud elements
tend to settle, the average element
weighs so little that only a slight
upward motion of air is needed to
support it (0.5 m/s). Ice crystals
can be supported by even lower
velocities. The tiny droplets grow
by condensation and impact with
their neighbours as they are carried
by turbulent air motion until they
become large enough so that the force of gravity overcomes that of friction and then begin to
fall, further increasing in size as they hit other droplets in the fall path. However, as the drop
falls, water evaporates from its surface and the drop size diminishes, so the drop may be
reduced to the size of aerosol again and be carried upwards in the cloud through turbulent
action. The cycle of condensation, falling, evaporation and rising occurs on average about
ten times before the drop reaches a critical size of about 0.1 mm, which is large enough to fall
through the bottom of the cloud. Upto 1 mm in diameter the droplets remain spherical in
shape, but beyond this size they begin to flatten out on the bottom until they are no longer
stable falling through air and break up into small raindrops and droplets. Normal raindrops
falling through the cloud base are 0.1 mm to 3 mm in diameter (Vc = 2 8 m/s).
Forms of precipitation
1.) Rain 0.5 mm < d < 6.0 mm; light if intensity < 2.5 mm/h & heavy > 7.5 mm/h
2.) Snow ice crystals into snowflakes
3.) Drizzle 0.1mm < d < 0.5mm; intensity < 1mm/h; appear to float in air
4.) Hail balls of ice 5mm<d<125mm; thunderstorms with strong vertical currents
5.) Sleet frozen raindrops when fall through subfreezing zone
6.) Glaze ice coating on exposed surface by freezing rain or drizzle.

Measurement of precipitation
Precipitation is expressed in terms of the depth to which rainfall water would remain stand on
an area if all the rain were collected on it. In case of snowfall an equivalent depth of water is
used as the depth of precipitation. The precipitation is collected and measured in a raingauge,

also called hyetometer, pluviometer,

or ombrometer.
A raingauge essentially consists of a cylindrical vessel assembly kept in the open to collect
rain. Raingauges can be broadly classified into two categories as (a) nonrecording raingauges
(Symons) and (b) recording gauges (weighing bucket, tipping bucket, natural syphon type).
Raingauge Network
To get a representative/real distribution of a rainfall event over space and time in a catchment
the number of raingauges should be as large as possible. On the other hand economic
considerations, topography, accessibility, maintenance etc restrict the number of gauges to be
installed. An optimum density of gauges is desired from which reasonably accurate
information about the storm can be obtained. Ten percent of raingauge stations should be
equipped with self recording gauges to know the intensities of rainfall. From practical
considerations of Indian conditions the Indian Standard (IS: 4987-1968) recommends (a)
plains - 1 in 520 km2 (b) elevation upto 1000m - 1 in 260 km2 (c) hills - 1 in 130 km2.
Adequacy of Raingauge Stations
If there are already some raingauge stations in a catchment, the optimal number of stations
that should exist to have an assigned percentage of error in the estimation of mean rainfall is
obtained by

N = (C v )

where = % error; Cv = coefficient of variation = 100 m 1 P ; P = mean rainfall; m-1 =

standard deviation. It is usual to take = 10%. If is small N will be large.
Preparation of Data
Before using the rainfall records of a station, it is necessary to first check the data for
continuity and consistency. The continuity of a record may be broken with missing data due

to many reasons such as damage or fault in a raingauge during a period. The missing data can
be estimated by using the data of the neighbouring stations. In these calculations the normal
rainfall is used as a standard of comparison. The normal rainfall is the average value of
rainfall at a particular date, month or year over a specified 30 year period.
Estimation of missing data
Given the annual precipitation P1, P2, P3, , Pm at neighbouring M stations and Px at station
x is missing. Further the normal annual precipitation N1, N2, N3, , Nm and Nx at each M+1
stations are known. If the normal annual precipitations are within 10% of the normal annual
precipitation Nx at station X, then a simple arithmetic average can be used

Px =

1
(P1 + P2 + P3 + ... + Pm )
M

If it vary considerably then normal ratio method be used

Px =

Nx
M

P1
P
P
P

+ 2 + 3 + m
N1 N 2 N 3 N m

Test for consistency of record

If the conditions relevant to the recording of a raingauge station have undergone a significant
change during the period of record, inconsistency would arise in the rainfall data of that
station. Some of the common causes for inconsistency of record are (a) shifting of a
raingauge station to a new location (b) the neighbourhood of the station undergoing a marked
change (c) change in the ecosystem
due to calamities such as forest
fires, land slides and (d) occurrence
of observational error from a certain
date.
The
checking
for
inconsistency of a record is done by
the double mass curve technique.
This technique is based on the
principle that when each recorded
data comes from the same parent
population, they are consistent. A
group of 5 to 10 base stations in the
neighbourhood of the problem
station X is selected. The rainfall
data of X and the average rainfall
data of neighbouring 10 stations are
arranged in reverse chronological
order and plotted as double mass curve. The decided break in plot of Px versus P
indicates a change in precipitation regime of station X. The data beyond break point is
c
corrected by slope ratio Pxc = Px
In this way older records are brought upto new regime of
a
the station. However the base stations (5 to 10) records must be homogeneous.

Presentation of rainfall data

Mass curve of rainfall
The mass curve of rainfall is a plot of the accumulated precipitation against time plotted in
chronological order. Mass curve of rainfall is very useful in extracting the information on the
duration and magnitude of a storm. Also, intensities at various time intervals in a storm can
be obtained by the slope of the curve.
Hyetograph
A hyetograph is a plot of the intensities of rainfall against the time interval. The hyetograph
is derived from the mass curve and is usually represented as a bar chart. It is a very

convenient way of representing the

characteristics of a storm and is
particularly important in the development
of design storm to predict extreme floods. The area under a hyetograph represents the total
precipitation received in the period. The time interval used depends on the purpose in urban
drainage problems small durations are used while in flood flow computations in larger
catchments the intervals are of about 6 hour.
Mean precipitation over an area
Raingauges represent only point sampling of the areal distribution of a storm. In practice
hydrological analysis requires a knowledge of the rainfall over an area. To convert the point
rainfall values at various stations into an average value over a catchment the following three
methods are used (a) Arithmetic mean (b) Thiessen polygon and (c) Isohyetal method.
Arithmetic mean
When the rainfall measured at various stations in a catchment show little variation, the
variation rainfall over the catchment area is taken as the arithmetic mean of the station values
P=

P1 + P2 + .... + Pn
1
=
N
N

i =1

Theissen polygon Method

In this method the rainfall recorded at each station is given a weightage on the basis of an
area closest to the station

P=

n
A
P1 A1 + P2 A2 + .... + Pn An
= Pi i
A
A1 + A2 + .... + An
i =1

where Ai = area bounded by the bisectors

P1
around the raingauge station Pi; Ai/A =
P4
A4
wieghtage factors. It is superior to the
P3
A1
arithmetic average method as some
weightage is given to the various stations
A3
on a rational basis. Further the raingauge
P2
A5
P5
A2
stations outside the catchment are also used
effectively. Once the WF are determined
for a catchment calculation of the average precipitation is relatively easy for a fixed network.
Isohyetal Method
An isohyetal is a line joining points of equal rainfall magnitude. The average value of the
rainfall indicated by two isohyets is assumed to be acting over the inter isohyet area.
P=

a1 (P1 + P2 ) 2 + a 2 (P2 + P3 ) 2 + .... + a n1 (Pn1 + Pn ) 2

A

where ai = inter isohyet area; and Pi =

isohyet. This is superior to the other two
methods when stations are large in number.

10 mm

n 1

=A

i =1

15 mm

20 mm

25 mm
30 mm

10 mm
25 mm
22 mm

20 mm

30 mm

Weather modification:
Weather modification means to alter artificially the natural meteorological phenomena of the
atmosphere. Attempts to increase or decrease precipitation, suppress hail and lightning,
mitigate hurricane, dissipate fog, prevent frost, alter radiation balance etc are included in
weather modification. Cloud seeding is used for either dissipation of the cloud or stimulation
of precipitation. Silver iodide and dry ice are commonly used nucleating agents.