Chapter #3
PRECIPITATION
Types of Precipitation
Factors Necessary for the Formation of Precipitation
Measurement of Precipitation
Interpretation of Precipitation Data
Computation of Average Rainfall over a Basin
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What is Precipitation?
• Precipitation is the discharge of water (in liquid or solid form)
out of the atmosphere.
• The principal form of precipitation is rain and snow and to a
lesser extent is hail, sleet etc.
• Precipitation is derived from atmospheric water.
• Atmospheric moisture is necessary but not sufficient
condition for precipitation.
• Other factors such as wind, temperature, atmospheric
pressure and local landscape can influence precipitation. 2
Uses of Precipitation Data
Runoff Estimation Analysis
Amount of Infiltration
Groundwater Recharge Analysis
Water Balance Studies of Catchments
Flood Analysis for Design of Hydraulic Structures
Real-time Flood Forecasting
Low Flow Studies
Water logging and Salinity Reclamation Projects
Environmental Effects of Water Resources Projects
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Condensation, Freezing and Deposition
Water is available on the Earth in three forms: vapor; liquid; and solid.
The process of water moving from one form to another is called a phase
or state change. In the atmosphere, three processes act to create water
droplets or ice crystals.
Condensation - water moving from a vapor to a liquid state.
Freezing - water moving from a liquid to a solid state.
Deposition - water moving from a vapor to a solid state.
For a phase change to occur heat energy must be added to or removed
from water molecules.
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Water Droplets and Ice Crystals
The formation of water droplets and ice crystals takes place when the
water in the atmosphere is cooled.
As air containing water vapor cools, the relative humidity of the air parcel
increases until the dew or frost point is reached. At dew point (relative
humidity = 100 %) water begins to condense into droplets.
If 100 % relative humidity is reached below 0 degrees Celsius deposition
occurs and ice crystals form.
Formation of water droplets and ice crystals also requires a surface for
condensation, freezing, or deposition. In the atmosphere, these surfaces
are microscopic particles of dust, smoke, and salt commonly called
condensation nuclei or aerosol.
If there is a deficiency of nuclei, super-saturation can result and
condensation, freezing, or deposition can only occur with a relative
humidity that is greater than 100 %.
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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 vapour into liquid droplets and
ice crystals. Condensation nuclei are required.
3. Growth of Droplets and Ice-crystals - Growth of droplets is
required if the liquid water present in a cloud is to reach ground against
the lifting mechanism of air.
The two principal processes in the formation of precipitation from cloud
droplets are (1) the ice-crystal process, and (2) the coalescence (ko-a-
les) process. These two processes may operate together or separately.
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1. Ice-crystal Process
• The ice crystal process involves the presence of ice crystals in
a super cooled (cooled to below freezing, –15 oC) water cloud.
• Due to the fact that saturation vapor pressure over water is
greater than that over ice, there is a vapor pressure gradient
from water drops to ice crystals.
• This causes the ice crystals to grow at the expense of the water
drops and fall through the clouds.
• The ice crystals will further grow as they fall and collide with
water droplets.
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2. Coalescence Process (Ko-a-les) (To unite)
• The coalescence process is based on the difference in fall
velocities and consequent collisions to be expected between
cloud elements of different sizes.
• The rate of growth of cloud elements depends upon the
range of particle sizes, the drop concentration and the sizes
of the aggregated drops.
• The electric field and drop charge may affect collision
efficiencies and may therefore be important factors in the
release of precipitation from clouds.
• Unlike the ice crystal process, the coalescence process
occurs at any temperature.
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Rain or Snow?
Depends upon Temperature
Precipitation typically forms high in the atmosphere
where the temperature is below freezing.
As ice crystals form high and fall toward the surface,
they collect each other to form large snowflakes.
Three possibilities are there:
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[Link] ground temperature is above 32 oF, the freezing level
must be located somewhere above the ground. As the
falling snow passes through the freezing level into the
warmer air, the flakes melt and collapse into raindrops.
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2. When the air temperature at the ground is less than 32 oF,
the snowflakes do not melt on the way down and
therefore reach the ground as snow.
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3. Occasionally, we observe snow reaching the ground even
though the outside temperature is above freezing. This
occurs when a very thin layer of warm air is found near the
surface. Since the layer of warm air is so shallow, the
precipitation reaches the ground as snow before it has a
chance to melt and become rain.
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Types of Precipitation
Depending upon the way in which the air is lifted and cooled
so as to cause precipitation, we have three types of
precipitation, as given below:
• Cyclonic Precipitation
• Convective Precipitation
• Orographic Precipitation
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1. Cyclonic Precipitation
Cyclonic precipitation is caused by lifting of an air mass due to the
pressure difference. Cyclonic precipitation may be either frontal or non-
frontal cyclonic precipitation.
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.
Non-frontal Precipitation If low pressure occurs in an area (called
cyclone), air will flow horizontally from the surrounding area (high
pressure), causing the air in the low-pressure area to lift. When the lifted
warm-air cools down at higher attitude, non-frontal cyclonic precipitation
will occur.
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Frontal Ppt - Cold Front
In the case of a cold front, a colder, denser air mass lifts the warm, moist air
ahead of it. As the air rises, it cools and its moisture condenses to produce
clouds and precipitation. Due to the steep slope of a cold front, forceful
rising motion is often produced, leading to the development of showers and
occasionally severe thunderstorms.
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Frontal Ppt - Warm Front
In the case of a warm front, the warm, less dense air rises up and over the
colder air ahead of the front. Again, the air cools as it rises and its moisture
condenses to produce clouds and precipitation. 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. Precipitation that develops in advance
of a surface warm front is typically steady and more widespread than
precipitation associated with a cold front. Warm front precipitation is generally
light to moderate
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FRONTS
Front: A front is a boundary between two regions of air that have different
meteorological properties such as temperature and humidity.
Cold Front: A cold front denotes a region where cold air is replacing warmer air.
Warm Front : A warm front denotes a region where warm air is replacing cooler air.
Occluded Front: An occluded front has both cold and warm fronts.
Stationary Front: A stationary front is a front that is not moving.
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Low Pressure
High High
Pressure Pressure
Non-Frontal or Convergence
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2. Convective Precipitation
• Convective precipitation is caused by natural rising of
warmer, lighter air in colder, denser surroundings.
• Generally, this kind of precipitation 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
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radiation
Convection
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3. Orographic Precipitation
• Orographic precipitation is 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 we have in Himalayan region is
because of this nature. It is rich in moisture because of
their long travel over oceans.
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Orographic
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Forms of Precipitation
(Liquid and Solid)
Drizzle:
Drizzle consists of tiny liquid water droplets, usually with diameters
between 0.1 and 0.5 mm and its intensity is less than 0.01 mm per hour.
Rain:
Rain consists of liquid water drops mostly larger than 0.5 mm in
diameter. The upper size of water drop is generally 6.25 mm, as drops
greater than this tend to break up as they fall through the air.
Rain has three intensities:
Light Rain : Rate of fall upto 3 mm/hr
Moderate Rain : Rate of fall from 3-10 mm/hr
Heavy Rain : Rate of fall over 10 mm/hr
Sleet:
Sleet consists of transparent, globulin, solid grains of ice formed by the
freezing of raindrops falling through a layer of subfreezing air near the
earth’s surface.
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Snow:
Snow is composed of ice crystals, primarily in complex hexagonal form and
often aggregated into snowflakes, which may reach several millimeters in
diameter (100 mm). Snowfall is precipitation in the form of Snow. The density
of freshly fallen snow varies greatly; 125 to 500mm.
The average density (specific gravity) is often assumed to be 0.1 (water
equivalent of snowfall is considered to be 10%).
Hail:
Hail is lumps of ice or hailstones, produced in convective clouds. Hailstones
may be spherical, conical or irregular is shape, and range from about 5 to over
125 mm in diameter.
Of all the forms of precipitation, rain (major part) and snow (minor part)
make the greatest contribution to our water supply. Other forms of precipitation
are all very small and generally ignored in the design of most of the
hydrological works.
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Measurement of Precipitation
• Measure what?
Point Estimate by Gauges
–Amount
Spatial Measurement by RADAR
–Intensity • Precipitation events are recorded by
–Location gauges at specific location.
• Point precipitation data are used
–Pattern collectively to estimate areal variability of
rain and snow.
Measurement of Precipitation
1. Point Data-Gauges
1. Non-recording Rain Gauges
They are known as non-recording because they do not record the rain but
collect the rain.
2. Recording Rain Gauges
These are used to determine rates of rainfall over periods of time.
Analogue Devices
1. Weighing Bucket Rain Gauge
2. Float Type Rain Gauge
Digital Devices
1. Tipping Bucket Rain Gauge
2. Optical Rain Gauge 27
Tipping Bucket Rain Gauge
• In the tipping-bucket gauge the water caught in the collector is
funneled into a two-compartment bucket (pair of buckets).
• When one bucket receives 0.25 mm (0.01 inch) quantity of rain it
tips, discharging its content into a receivers bringing the other
bucket under the funnel.
• Tipping of the bucket completes an electric circuit causing the
movement of pen to mark chart on clock-driven drum or digital
counting.
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Optical Rain Gauge (ORG)
The ORG is mounted on a small pole.
The ORG sends a beam of light (not visible) from one
of its ends to a detector at the other end.
When raindrops fall, they break the beam. The rain rate
is measured by the ORG by measuring how often the
beam is broken.
The rain rate can be used to calculate the total amount
of rain that has fallen in any given period.
ORG measures the rate of rainfall in millimeters per
hour (mm/hr).
Optical Rain Gauge
