2 .

HYDROMETEOROLOGY
2.1 PRECIPITATION
 Precipitation –the total amount of water falling from
the atmosphere in the form of rain , snow , mist , etc.
on the earth.
 The phenomena from its formation to reaching to
the ground are counted under meteorology and the
amount as it reaches to the ground is tackled by
hydrology.
Conditions for Occurrence of Precipitation
Moisture in the atmosphere
 Cooling of air mass
 Formation of clouds due to Condensation
Condensation is the process by which water vapor in
the atmosphere is converted in to droplets or , at low
temperatures , in to ice crystals.
 Growth of water droplets
 Forms of Precipitation

 Rain: when water reaches in the surface of the

earth in the form of droplets of water (0.5 to 6 mm)
 Snow: forms of ice crystal

 Drizzle: water droplets less than 0.5mm

 Sleet: where rain falls through air of sub freezing

temperature, ice formed.
 Hail: ice ranging from 5mm to 50mm

 Dew : water droplets formed on the surface of the

earth during night
 Weather Systems for Precipitation
 The transport of air masses takes place in several
ways,by;
 convection,
Orographic lifting,
lifting by fronts and
Cyclonic.
Convective ( Convectional precipitation)
 caused by the rising of warm, lighter air due to
heating of earth‘s surface.
 Occurs mostly in the tropics.
 Water vapor in the air condenses and finally
preciptate.
Orographic Lifting
Orographic precipitation results when warm moist air
get lifted up to higher altitudes due to the presence
of mountain barriers.
 Frontal Lifting (Frontal precipitation)
precipitation
 Front is the interface b/n two distinct air masses.
 When a warm air mass and cold 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
 Cyclonic (Cyclonic precipitation)
 A cyclone is a large low pressure region with circular
wind motion.
 When a low pressure region (cyclone) is developed
then air from the surrounding region tends to move
into the low pressure region.
 In doing so the low pressure air is lifted up ward to
cool and precipitate.
Convective……
 Rainfall Measurement
 Rainfall is measured by an instrument called
raingages.
 A rain gage is an instrument that captures
precipitation and measures its accumulated volume
during a certain time period.
 If the precipitation is of snow type it is collected in
snow gages melted and its water equivalent is
recorded.
 The precipitation depth for the given period is equal
to the accumulated volume divided by the collecting
area of the gage.
 The depth of rain fall is expressed in
mm,inches,cm,etc.
 Types of Rain Gages
 Rain gages are of two types:
Non-recording gages
Recording gages
 Non-recording gauges
– They donot record the data
– Collect rainfall
– Collected rainfall is measured later on by
measuring tube or stick
– Depth of rain=volum of rain collected cm3/area
of aperture of guages cm2
Non recording rain gage
 Recording Rain gages
 Give directly the rainfall reading
 Record continuously
 such gauges have a rotating drum with graph
paper fixed around it.
 There is also a pen in contact with the graph
paper, which moves up with the collected rain
and thus recording the cumulative rain, with the
passage of time.
Types of recording Rain gages
 The three common Types of Recording gauges
are:
• Tipping-bucket gauge
• Weighing-type gauge
• Floating type
 1. Tipping-Bucket gauge
 Dual buckets alternate as one fills other empties.
When exactly 0.25 mm of rainfall collects in one
bucket, it tips and brings the other one in position.
As the bucket is tipped it automatically activates an
electric circuit.
 Connected to a data logger
 Gives intensity of rainfall
 The tipping moves a pen on a clock driven chart.
2. Weighing-type gauge
 Weighs the rain which falls into a bucket placed on
a weighing mechanism.
 The increasing weight of the bucket helps in
recording the increasing quantity of collected rain
with time by moving a pen on a revolving drum.
 3. Floating type

 Float rises vertically with water level

 The rise of the floating body due to the increasing
rain catch is lifting the pen point, which goes on
recording the cumulative rain.

Receiver Tipping-bucket

Funnel
Tipping

Reservoir
bucket

Receiver

Measuring
tube
Outer Bucket
Weighing-type case
Weighing
mechanism
Revolving drum
with chart
Pen arm
Source: Linsley 1982
 Floating type

1-receiver; 2-floater; 3-siphon; 4-recording needle;

5-drum with diagram; 6-clock mechanism
 Rain Gage Network Design
 A basin should have as many number of gages as
possible to give a clear representative picture of the
areal distribution of the precipitation.

 Pilot gauges be fixed over an area

 Statistical analysis can be carried out to check the
analysis

Where
N : number of stations;
Ep : the allowable percentage error in the estimation
of the mean annual rainfall;
Cv : the coefficient of variation of the rainfall from the
existing n stations in percentage.
 Rain Gage Network Design…
• The allowable percentage of error E p is normally taken
as 10%.
• While computing the value of Cv if the value comes
less than 10%, we can assume the existing stations to
be sufficient for the basin.
• In case N > n, the additional stations required for the
basin can be found as (N-n).
 Site where gauge should be located
• Open place and easily accessible
• The distance between the rain gage and the nearest
object should be at least twice the height of the object
• In the hills where it is difficult to find level space, the
site for the gage should be chosen where it is best
shielded from high winds and where the wind doesn’t
cause eddies
• A fence, if erected to protect the gage from cattle, etc,
should be located that the distance of the fence is not
less than twice its height
 Errors in measuring Rainfall data
 A number of errors can occur in the measurement
of rain fall with a rain gage.
 These errors are due to:
 Airflow
 Unrepresentative orientation and exposure of the
gage
 Human observation and transmission
 Evaporation from with in the cylinder , gage leaks
and overflow.
 Change in exposure area of the receiver due to
bend and dents in the rim
 Estimation of Areal rain fall
• Rain fall varies both temporally and spatially.
• The temporal rainfall distribution shows the variation
of rainfall depth within storm duration.
• This can be expressed in either discrete or
continuous form.
• The discrete form is referred to as a hyetograph i.e.
a histogram of rainfall depth (or rainfall intensity)
with time increments as abscissa and rainfall depth
(or rainfall intensity) as ordinates.
• The continuous form is a function describing the rate
of rainfall accumulation with time.
• Storm duration is the time elapsed from start to end
of the storm event.
 Estimation of Areal rain fall……
Rainfall hyetograph Rainfall Hyetograph

80 1000

Intensity (mm/hr)
60 800
600 Intensity
Depth (mm)

40 Rainfall
400
20 200
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Duration (min) Duration (min)

Cummulative
Cummulative Depth

Mass Curve

500
400
(MM)

300
200
100
0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Duration (min)
 Estimation of Areal rain fall……

 The spatial variation of rainfall shows the same

amount of rainfall doesn’t fall uniformly over the
entire catchments .
 Isohyets are used to show the spatial variation of
rainfall.
 Isohyets are lines joining points of equal magnitude
in a map.
 During a given storm, it is likely that the depth
measured by two or more rain gages of the same
type will not be the same.
 In hydrologic analysis, it is often necessary to
determine a spatial average of the rainfall depth
over the catchment.
Estimation of Areal rain fall……

P1

P3 P5
P2 Average
Rainfall
P4
P6
 Arithmetic mean method

 It is computed as the arithmetic mean of the

amounts measured by the gauges within the area.
Pav = 1/n (P1 + P2 + . . . + Pn)
Pav = Average rainfall over the area
Pi = Rainfall at different gauges
n = Number of gauges in the area
 The method is used for:
• Flat areas
• When the stations are closely and uniformly
distributed over the area
 Theissen Polygons method
• The method assumes that the recorded rainfall in a
gauge is representative for the area half-way to the
adjacent gauges.
Step 1: Draw the area
Thiessen Method : concerned to a suitable
scale, showing its boundary,
Steps
P2
P1
locations of the raingauges
P4
in the area and outside but
P5
P3 close to the boundary
P6
P7

Step 2: Join location of

the raingauges to form
a network of triangles
 P1
P2
Step 3: Draw perpendicular
P4 P5
bisectors to the triangle sides.
P3 These bisectors form polygons
around the stations
P6
P7

P1
A1
A2 P2
A4
A3 P4 P5
A5
P3
A6
P6 A7
P7
 Theissen Polygons method….
 This method gives good results when the rain
gauges are not evenly distributed over the area in
both flat and hilly terrain.
P1
• Thiessen Method : Example A1
A2 P2

A4

A3 P4 P5
A5
P3

A6
P6 A7

P7
 Isohyetal method
 Isohyet is a line 0 0

10
0 0 0
joining points of 0
equal rainfall 1 4 16 11
11
•magnitude
Most accurate method Isohyet 10
19 62
11 45
9
es 45 27 10
•Incorporates the • All figures are in

25
1
25 0
mm 65
orographic effect 50

50
Monthly isohyetal map (sample)
Isohyetal Method: Steps
 Steps.....

Step 3: Determine the area between each pair of the

isohyet lines, either by a planimeter or by converting
the areas into smaller regular geometric shapes.

Step 4: Calculate the average rainfall using the following

formula:
Pav = A1 (P1 + P2)/2 + A2 (P2 + P3)/2 + . . . + An-1(Pn-1 + Pn)/2
(A1 + A2 + . . . + An)
Pi = Value of Isohyet lines
Ai = Area between pair of
Isohyetal isohyetExample
Method: lines.

Calculate the average rainfall over the area given in

the figure using Isohyetal method.
Isohyet Area Average Rainfall volume
16.5

25
(mm) Between Rainfall (col 2x col3)

50
Isohyets (mm) (mm-Sq.Km) 48.7

10 75
(sq.Km) 37

0
125 33.28 125.0 4,160.00 68.3
100 197.12 112.5 22,176.00

5
12
75 296.96 87.5 25,984.00 39 75.7 125
50 501.76 62.5 31,360.00
49.5
25 494.11 37.5 18,529.13
less 25 79.36 21.0 1,666.56
Total 1602.59 103,875.69 44.5
Pav = 103, 875.69/1,602.59 = 64.82mm

Rain Fall data interpretation

 After acquiring a set of point precipitation data, it is necessary
to first verify the data before using it for analysis or design.
The data set should be checked for missing and consistency
of data.
 If there are missing data, they should be replaced if possible.
 If there are inconsistent data, they should be adjusted.
 Filling in missing records
 Incomplete records of rainfall are sometimes
possible due to operator error or equipment
malfunction.
Arithmetic Average Method
Px = 1/n (P1 + P2 + ... +Pn)
Px = missing rainfall data at station x
Pi = rainfall data at the neighbouring station i
n = number of neighbouring raingauges
Compute % differences
Diff. =|Ni-Nx|/Nx x 100

NO
IsIs Diff.<
Diff < 10%
10%? Normal Ratio

YES

Arithmetic Average
Example : Estimation of Missing Rainfall Data, Stations from
Ethiopia
Station Name Monthly data, Normal annual Rainfall % Difference
July, 1980 (mm) (mm)

Hawzien 195.7 446 5.5

Ilala 186.5 452 4.2

Adigrat 243.3 512 8.5

Quiha ? 472 _

% Diff < 10 Arithmetic Average

Px = 1/3 (195.7 + 186.5 + 243.3)
Px = 208.5mm
Example : Estimation of Missing Rainfall Data, Data from India
Station Id. Rainfall at one Normal %
Storm event(mm) annual Difference
Rainfall
1 107 1120 14.5

2 89 935 4.4

3 122 1200 22.7

4 ? 978 -

% Difference > 10 Normal Ratio method

Px = 1/3 (978/1120 x 107 + 978/935 x 89 + 978/1200 x 122)
Px = 95.3mm
 Consistency of rainfall data
• Numerous factors could affect the consistency of the
record at a given station.
– damage and replacement of a rain gage
– change in the gage location or elevation
– human, mechanical, or electrical error in taking
readings
 A method called ”double mass curve analysis” is
used for adjusting inconsistent data.

comparing the accumulated annual (or

seasonal, monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly)
precipitation at the station in question with the
accumulated annual (or seasonal, monthly,
weekly, daily, or hourly) precipitation for a
group of surrounding stations.
 Consistency of rainfall data….

m2

m1

 A break in the double mass curve in the figure

indicates that a change occurred in that year.
 If the slope of the line prior to the change is m1 ,
and that after the change is m2 then the adjustment
factor is , which is m1/m2 , the multiplier applied to
the post-change observed data to obtain the
 Mean Yearly Cummulativ
Solution Annual rainfall Cummulative
of
Surrounding
e of
Surroundin
Year of A of A stations g stations
1996 1430 1430 1410 1410
1995 1100 2530 1260 2670
the year in 1994 1170 3700 1100 3770
decreasing order 1993 1100 4800 1230 5000
1992 1200 6000 1150 6150
1991 1220 7220 1430 7580
1990 1280 8500 1150 8730
yearly precipitation 1989 750 9250 950 9680
values 1988 1120 10370 1230 10910
1987 1250 11620 1350 12260

cumulative rainfall 1986 1380 13000 1440 13700

1985 1210 14210 1360 15060
1984 1760 15970 1730 16790
1983 1400 17370 1080 17870
mean yearly 1982 1240 18610 970 18840
precipitation 1981 1760 20370 1320 20160
1980 1480 21850 1350 21510
cumulative 1979 1740 23590 1410 22920
precipitation 1978 1420 25010 1270 24190
 Double mass curve
30000

25000

20000
1978
Cummulative of doubtful station X

1980
15000 1982
1984
10000

5000

0
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
Cummulative of Surrpounding stations
 Cont…

• Slope of Original line:

M1 =(15970-1430)/(16790-1410) = 0.945
• Slope of Deviated line
M2 =(26590-15970)/(25450-16790) = 1.226
• Correction
=0.945/1.226 = 0.771
Year Annual rainfall of A corrected cumulative
1996 1430 1430 1430
1995 1100 1100 2530
1994 1170 1170 3700
1993 1100 1100 4800
1992 1200 1200 6000
1991 1220 1220 7220
1990 1280 1280 8500
1989 750 750 9250
1988 1120 1120 10370
1987 1250 1250 11620
1986 1380 1380 13000
1985 1210 1210 14210
1984 1760 1760 15970
1983 1400 * 0.771 1079 17049
1982 1240 * 0.771 956 18005
1981 1760 * 0.771 1357 19362
1980 1480 * 0.771 1141 20503
1979 1740 * 0.771 1341 21844
Correction
1978 1420 *0.771 1095 22939
1977 1580 * 0.771 1218 24157
 Double Mass Curve

30000

25000
Cumulative of X after correction

20000

15000

10000

5000

0
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
Cummulative of Surrounding Stations
 Intensity Duration Frequency (IDF) Curve
 Rainfall frequency refers to the average time elapsed
between occurrences of two rainfall events of the same
depth and duration.
 At a certain location a 100mm rainfall event lasting 6 h
occurs on the average once every 50y,
 The 100-mm, 6-h rainfall frequency for this location would
be 1 in 50years, 1/50, or 0.02.
 The reciprocal of rainfall frequency is referred to as return
period or recurrence interval. 12
2-y
10
5-y
8
Intensity (in/hr)
10-y
6 25-y
4 50-y
2 100-y
0
0 20 40 60 80
Duration (min)
 IDF Curve…..
 A formula for IDF curve is

 The values of k, b, m, and n are evaluated from

measured data or local experience
 Such curves are developed by government agencies
for use in urban storm drainage design and other
application using frequency analysis
 Evaporation & Evapotranspiration
• Evaporation (E) is the transfer of water into the atmosphere from a
free water surface, a bare soil or interception on a vegetal cover.
• Transpiration Process by which water vapor passes into the
atmosphere through the tissue of living plants.
• Evapo-transpiration can be defined as a natural process where
water vapour is transferred from both the land surface and
vegetation surface evaporation and transpiration processes

 The rate of evaporation depends on:

• The vapor pressures at the water surface and air
• Air and water temperatures
• Wind speed
• Atmospheric pressure
• Quality of water and
• Size of the water body
Methods For Estimating the Rate of Evaporation
 The amount of water evaporated from a water surface is estimated
by the following methods:
i) Pan Measurement
ii) Storage equation or water-budget
iii) Mass transfer (aerodynamic)
iv) Energy budget
v) Combined Method
Pan Measurement
 Evaporation pans provide a measurement of the integrated effect
of radiation, wind, temperature, and humidity on evaporation from
an open surface.
 Types of Pans
• Class A Evaporation Pan
• Colorado Sunken Pan
• US Geological Survey Floating Pan
 The basic pan-evaporation formula is the following:

Where,
PET  K p E
PET = potential evapotranspiration; p
Kp = pan coefficient; and Ep = pan evaporation.
 Evaporation pans are not exact models of large reservoirs and
have the following drawbacks
• difference in heat storing capacity and heat transfer
• height of rim affects the wind action over the surface
• heat transfer characteristics of pan material differ from that of
the reservoir
 Lake evaporation correction
 Water Budget Method
 The simplest of the three analytical methods and also the least
reliable because some terms in the water budget equation are
difficult to measure.

P  Qi Qu E  Qo Qs
Where P= Total precipitation on the water surface.
Qi =Total surface inflow
Qu = Total underground inflow or outflow (+ve value for inflow, and –
ve value for outflow).
E = Evaporation from the water surface
Qo = Surface outflow
Qs
=Change in storage (+ve value for an increase in storage, and –ve
value for a decrease)
 Water Budget Method….
• All these factors are converted into the same units, generally expressed as the
depth on the water area for some convenient time interval. If all other terms are
known, E can be calculated.
Transpiration
 Transpiration is the process by which water leaves the body of a living plant and
reaches the atmosphere as water vapor.
 The important factors affecting transpiration are:
• Atmospheric vapor pressure
• Temperature
• Wind
• Light intensity, and
• Characteristics of plants such as the root and leaf systems
 Methods for Estimating the Rate of Evapotranspiration
1. Blaney-Criddle formula
• is purely empirical formula
• it assumes that ET is related to sunshine hours and
temperature, as given below
ET 2.54kF

F  0.01* Ph T f

Where
ET = potential evapotranspiration in a crop season in cm
K = an empirical coefficient, depends on the type of the crop
F = sum of monthly consumptive use factors for the period
Ph = monthly percent of annual day-time hours, depends on the
latitude of the place


T f = mean monthly temperature in oF

 2. Penman-Monteith Formula
• This formula is based on the physical principles
applied by Penman with extended physical
representation of water loss from vegetation. The
evaporation rate is given by:  c  a  e  
ea 
  p  s
RN L 
   
 L ra 
 
Eo  
 ( rs  ra ) 

    

 ra 

Where rs is the net resistance of diffusion through the surface of the

leaves and soil given by d.m-1and other variables are previously
defined.