06-Dec-20

Precipitation is defined as liquid or solid

condensation of water vapor falling from clouds or
deposited from air onto the ground.
Precipitation in the form of ice flakes, such as snow,
is called solid precipitation, and that in the form of
water drops is sometimes called liquid precipitation
(rainfall) for distinction.
The principal form of precipitation in Yemen is the
rainfall.

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 06-Dec-20

Moist air is moved upward principally by:

(1) Convective currents to cause convective rainfalls;

(2) Hills and mountains to produce orographic

rainfalls; and

(3) Cyclonic circulation to generate cyclonic rainfalls.

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 06-Dec-20

Convective Rainfall

Orographic Rainfall

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 06-Dec-20

Cyclonic Rainfall

Precipitation is measured as the amount of water that

reaches horizontal ground or the horizontal ground
projection plane of the earth’s surface, and is
expressed as a vertical depth of water or the water
equivalent of solid precipitation.

Instruments for measuring precipitation include rain

gauges and snow gauges, and various types are
manufactured according to the purpose at hand.

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 06-Dec-20

Rainfall may be measured by a network of rain

gauges which may either be of non-recording or
recording rain gauges.
The unit of precipitation in general is the millimeter
or inch.

Rain gauges are classified into

recording and non-recording
types. The latter include
cylindrical and ordinary rain
gauges, and measurement of
precipitation with these types
is performed manually by the
observer.

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 06-Dec-20

The recording types such

as siphon rain gauges
have a built-in recorder,
and the observer must
physically visit the
observation site to
obtain data.

Other types such as

tipping bucket rain
gauges have a recorder
attached to them, and
remote readings can be
taken by setting a
recorder at a site
distant from the gauge
itself to enable
automatic observation.

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 06-Dec-20

Normally, two types of gauges are used for the

measurement of rainfall:
(i) Non-recording Gauge.
(ii) Recording Gauges (Automatic Rain gauges):
a) Tipping-Bucket Type
b) Syphonic Type (or Floating Type)
c) Weighing-Bucket Type
(iii) Telemetric Rain gauges
(iv) Radar Measurement of Rainfall
(v) Satellite Rainfall Measurement (Remote Sensing).

The application of radars in the study of storm

mechanics, i.e. the areal/area extent, orientation and
movement of rain storms, is of great use. This
method is usually used to enhancement data obtained
from a network of rain gauges.
The radar signals reflected by the rain are helpful in
determining the magnitude of storm precipitation and
its areal distribution.
Radar provides an indirect measurement of rainfall,
but only for regions within a few hundred km of a
radar station and even less in mountainous regions
due to blockage of the beam.

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 06-Dec-20

Estimates of rainfall from satellite data are less direct

and less accurate than either gauges or radar, but
have the advantage of high spatial resolution (4 km)
and complete coverage over oceans, mountainous
regions, and sparsely populated areas where other
sources of rainfall data are not available.
Since flash flood events often originate with heavy
rainfall in sparsely instrumented areas that goes
undetected, satellite-derived rainfall can be a critical
tool for identifying hazards from smaller-scale
rainfall and flood events.

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 06-Dec-20

It is obvious that to get a representative picture of a

storm over a catchment the number of rain gauges
should be as large as possible, i.e. the catchment
area per single gauge should be small. On the other
hand, economic considerations, topography and
accessibility restrict the number of gauges to be
maintained.
Towards this, the World Meteorological Organization
(WMO) recommends the optimum densities of gauges
from which reasonably accurate information about
the storms can be obtained and they are as follow;

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 06-Dec-20

1. In flat regions of temperate, Mediterranean and

Tropical zones:
 Ideal: 1 station for 600-900 km2
 Acceptable: 1 station for 900-3000 km2;
2. In mountainous regions of temperate, Mediterranean
and Tropical zones:
 Ideal: 1 station for 100-250 km2
 Acceptable: 1 station for 250-1000 km2; and

3. In arid and Polar zones:

 I station for 1500-10,000 km2 depending on the

feasibility.

Ten per cent of rain gauge stations should be equipped

with self-recording gauges to know the intensities of
rainfall.

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 06-Dec-20

Hydro-meteorological Monitoring Station in Yemen

In a large catchment area there are more than one

rain gauge station and a single value of average
rainfall applicable to the entire catchment area is
called mean rainfall for a catchment area. There are
three methods for finding out this mean;

(i) Arithmetic Mean,

(ii) Thiessen Polygon,

(iii) Isohyetal Method.

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 06-Dec-20

(i) Arithmetic Mean

In this method the rainfall amounts from all the
gauging stations is added and the sum divided by the
number of stations,

(ii) Thiessen Polygons Method

This method is to divide the area into polygons. Plot
all the rain gauge stations on the catchment area
plan. Join all stations forming triangles. Draw
perpendicular bisectors of all such lines.

Each rain gauge station will be included in polygons

formed by the bisectors and by the boundary of the
catchment area. The area measured by a planimeter
(or other method) of this polygon is the influence
area of this station. The mean rainfall over the
catchment area, is given by

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 06-Dec-20

Construction of Thiessen Polygons

3

4
2

6
5

Example 1: Thiessen polygons method for average rainfall

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 06-Dec-20

Station
Polygon Area, A (Sq. mi) P*A
Precipitation, P (in)
1 15.48 0.9 13.93
2 45.36 1.5 68.04
3 38.16 2.8 106.85
4 57.96 1.8 104.33
5 36.72 2.2 80.78
6 33.12 3.1 102.67
7 33.12 3.9 129.17
8 1.80 3.0 5.40
9 23.04 3.8 87.55
10 23.04 4.1 94.46
11 2.88 2.1 6.05
12 33.12 2.9 96.05
13 27.00 3.0 81.00
14 20.16 1.8 36.29
15 9.72 3.1 30.13
Total 400.68 1042.70

1042.70
Average precipitation on basin = = 2.60 in
400.68

(iii) Isohyetal Method

Isohyets are lines joining points of equal rainfall (they
can also be termed as rainfall contours). The isohyets
of various values are drawn by considering point
rainfalls as guides, and interpolating between them
with reference to a certain interval. The procedure is
similar to the drawing of elevation contours based on
spot levels.
The areas between two adjacent isohyets are then
determined with a planimeter (or any other method).

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 06-Dec-20

35
30
20 25
15 Isohyets
22.5
10

17.3 32

Catchment
35
Boundary
17.2

Station 10 30
Rainfall
Boundary 21.2

25

15
20
10

If the isohyets go out of catchment, the catchment

boundary is used as the bounding line. The average
value of the rainfall indicated by two isohyets is
assumed to be acting over the inter-isohyet area. If
P1, P2, ... Pn are the values of isohyets and a1, a2, ... an
are the inter-Isohyet areas respectively, then the
mean precipitation over the catchment of area A is
given by:
 P  P2   P  P3   P  P4  P  Pn 
a1  1   a2 2   a3 3     a n 1  n 1 
 2   2   2   2 
P
A

where, A = a1 + a2 + a3 + ... an

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 06-Dec-20

Example 2: Isohyetal method for average rainfall

Zone Area, A (Sq. mi) Pave (in) Pave * A

I 21.24 0.95 20.18

II 84.96 1.5 127.44

III 150.12 2.5 375.30

IV 107.28 3.5 375.48

V 24.48 4.1 100.37

VI 12.60 1.8 22.68

Total 400.68 1021.45

1021.45
Average precipitation on basin = = 2.55 in
400.68
1 in = 2.54 cm, hence 2.55 in = 6.477 cm

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 06-Dec-20

Example 3: Point rainfalls due to a storm at several

rain-gauge stations in a basin are shown in Figure 1
below. Determine the mean areal depth of rainfall
over the basin by the three methods.

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 06-Dec-20

 Given data
Station A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O

Rainfall recorded,
8.8 7.6 10.8 9.2 13.8 10.4 8.5 10.5 11.2 9.5 7.8 5.2 5.6 6.8 7.4
Pi (cm)
Area of influential
polygon, 570 920 720 620 520 550 400 650 500 350 520 250 350 100 160
Ai (km2)

Solution:

(i) Arithmetic average method

133.1 cm

(ii) Thiessen Polygons Method

The Thiessen polygons are constructed as shown in

Fig. 1, and the polygonal areas are planimetered and
the mean areal depth of rainfall is worked out in
Table 1.

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 06-Dec-20

Table 1: Mean Rainfall Calculation (Thiessen Polygons Method)

Rainfall recorded, Area of polygon, Ai * P i
Station
Pi (cm) Ai (km2) (cm.km2)
A 8.8 570 5016
B 7.6 920 6992
C 10.8 720 7776
D 9.2 620 5704
E 13.8 520 7176
F 10.4 550 5720
G 8.5 400 3400
H 10.5 650 6825
I 11.2 500 5600
J 9.5 350 3325
K 7.8 520 4056
L 5.2 250 1300
M 5.6 350 1960
N 6.8 100 680
O 7.4 160 1184
Total 133.1 7180 66714

(iii) Isohyetal Method

The isohyets are drawn as shown in figure below and
the mean areal depth of rainfall is worked out in
Table 2.

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 06-Dec-20

Table 2: Mean Rainfall Calculation (Isohyetal Method)

Area between Product

Isohyets Mean isohyetal Mean areal depth
Zone isohyets, A1–2 (3) × (4)
(cm) value, P1–2 (cm) of rainfall (cm)
(km2) (km2-cm)
1 2 3 4 5 6
I <6 5.4 410 2,214
II 6--8 7 900 6,300
III 8--10 9 2850 25,650
IV 10--12 11 1750 19,250
V > 12 12.9 720 9,288 Pave = 9.31 cm
VI <8 7.5 550 4,125
∑= 7180 66,827

If there are already some rain-gauge stations in a

catchment, the optimal number of stations that
should exist have an assigned percentage of error in
the estimation of mean rainfall is obtained by
statistical analysis as:

where, N = optimal number of stations,

= allowable degree of error in the estimate of the
mean rainfall, and
Cv = coefficient of variation of the rainfall values at
the existing n stations (%).

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 06-Dec-20

If there are n stations in the catchment each

recording rainfall values P1, P2, P3, …, Pn , the
coefficient of variation Cv is calculated as:

Estimation of Missing Data

If the monthly precipitation, P1, P2, P3, ... Pm at
neighboring M stations 1, 2, 3, ..., M respectively, it is
required to find the missing monthly precipitation Px ,
at a station X not included in the above M stations.
Further, the normal/average annual precipitations N1,
N2, N3,…, Nm+1, at each of the above (M+1) stations
including station X are known.
If the normal annual precipitations at various stations
are within about 10% of the normal annual
precipitation at station X, then a simple arithmetic
average procedure is followed to estimate Px. Thus

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 06-Dec-20

If the normal precipitations vary considerably, then Px

is estimated by weighing the precipitation at the
various stations by the ratios of normal annual
precipitations. This method, known as the Normal
Ratio Method gives Px as:

Example 4: The following data for monthly and

normal/average annual precipitation are available,
estimate the missing data at station X:
P(A) = 98 mm, NP(A) = 1,008 mm
P(B) = 80 mm, NP(B) = 842 mm
P(X) = ? NP(X) = 880 mm

Applying the normal ratio method to the available

data we have:
Px= (880/2)*[(98/1008)+(80/842)]
Px= 440*[0.0972+0.09501] = 84.6 mm

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 06-Dec-20

If the conditions relevant to the recording of a rain-

gauge station have undergone a significant change
during the period of record, inconsistency would arise in
the rainfall data of that station. This inconsistency
would be felt from the time the significant change took
place. Some of the common causes for inconsistency of
record are:
 Shifting of a rain-gauge station to a new location,
The neighborhood of the station undergoing a marked
change,
 Change in the ecosystem due to calamities, such as
forest fires, land slides, and
 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 19 base stations in the neighborhood
of the problem station X is selected. The data of the
annual (or monthly mean) rainfall of the station X and
also the average rainfall of the group of base stations
covering a long period is arranged in the reverse
chronological order (i.e. the latest record as the first
entry and the oldest record as the last entry in the
list).

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 06-Dec-20

The accumulated precipitation of the station X (i.e.

SPx) and the accumulated values of the average of the
group of base stations (i.e. SPav) are calculated
starting from the latest record.
Values of SPx are plotted against SPav for various
consecutive time periods (as shown in the figure
bellow), A decided break in the slope of the resulting
plot indicates a change in the precipitation regime of
station X. The precipitation values at station X beyond
the period of change of regime (point 63 in the
figure) is corrected by using the relation:
Mc
Pcx  Px
Mo

Figure shows Double-mass Curve

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 06-Dec-20

Mc
Pcx  Px
Mo
where
Pcx = corrected precipitation at any time period t1
at station X.
Px = original recorded precipitation at time period
t1 at station X.
Mc = corrected slope of the double-mass curve.
Mo = original slope of the mass curve.

In this way the older records are brought up to the

new regime of the station. It is apparent that the
more homogeneous the base station records are the
more accurate will be the corrected values at Station
X.

A change in slope is normally taken as significant

only where it persists/continues for more than five
years. The double-mass curve is also helpful in
checking arithmetical errors in transferring rainfall
data from one record to another.

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 06-Dec-20

Example 5: The precipitation for a certain basin has

been recorded for several years at 5 gages. The data
at one of the gages (site X) is suspected to be
inconsistent relative to that at the other four sites.
The table below shows data for X and the average
data for the other four sites (called Y).
(a) Analyze the consistency of the data at X by the
double mass curve method.
(b) Adjust the data of the earlier/previous years at X
(so that they are consistent with those of recent
years).

Average of 4 Cumulative sum of Cumulative sum of

Year Gage Xt
gages Yt X, St (X) Y, St (Y)

0 0
1979 668 780 668 780
1980 570 762 1238 1542
1981 681 878 1919 2420
1982 601 754 2520 3174
1983 483 761 3003 3935
1984 1186 1056 4189 4991
1985 940 887 5129 5878
1986 616 656 5745 6534
1987 950 791 6695 7325
1988 773 840 7468 8165
1989 646 706 8114 8871

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 06-Dec-20

9000

8000 1989

1988
7000
1987
Cumulative Sum of X

6000
1986

5000 1985

1984
4000

3000 1983
1982
2000 1981

1980
1000
1979

0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000

Cumulative Sum of Y

The figure shows that there is a break in the slope at

year 1983. Therefore we will need to adjust the
precipitation values for the gage for the year 1979 to
1983.
For example, for year 1979 the adjusted precipitation
becomes:
Mc = (8114-3003) / (8871-3935) = 1.035
Mo = (3003-0) / (3935-0) = 0.763
M
Pcx  Px c
Mo
Pcx for 1979 = 668 × (1.035/0.763) = 906 mm
The rest of the adjusted values are shown in yellow
cells of the next table.

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 06-Dec-20

Cumulative
Cumulative Cumulative
Average of Adjusted sum of
Year Gage Xt sum of X, sum of Y, Slope
4 gages Yt gage X/t adjusted X/,
St(x) St(y)
St (x/)
0 0 0
1979 668 780 668 780 906 906
1980 570 762 1238 1542 773 1679
0.763
1981 681 878 1919 2420 924 2603
1982 601 754 2520 3174 815 3418
1983 483 761 3003 3935 655 4074
1984 1186 1056 4189 4991 1186 5260
1985 940 887 5129 5878 940 6200
1986 616 656 5745 6534 616 6816
1.035
1987 950 791 6695 7325 950 7766
1988 773 840 7468 8165 773 8539
1989 646 706 8114 8871 646 9185

10000

9000
1989

1988
8000
1987
Cumulative Sum of X

7000
1986

1985
6000

1984
5000

4000 1983

1982
3000
1981
2000
1980

1000
1979

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000

Cumulative Sum of Y

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 06-Dec-20

10000

1989
9000
1988
8000
1987

7000
1986

1985
6000
Cumulative Sum of X

1984
5000

4000 1983

1982
3000
1981
2000
1980

1000 1979

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000

Cumulative Sum of Y

Mass Curve of Rainfall

The mass curve of rainfall is a plot of the

accumulated precipitation against time, plotted in
chronological order.

Mass curves of rainfall are 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.

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 06-Dec-20

Hyetograph
A hyetograph is a plot of the intensity of rainfall
against the time interval. The hyetograph is derived
from the mass curve and is usually represented as a
bar chart. The area under a hyetograph represents
the total precipitation received in that period.

Hyetograph of a Storm

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 06-Dec-20

Rainfall Intensity Duration Rainfall Depth

(cm/hr) (hr) (cm)
0.32 8 0.32*8 = 2.56
0.26 8 2.08
0.38 8 3.04
0.13 8 1.04
0.06 8 0.48
0.05 8 0.4
0.05 8 0.4
Total 56 hrs 10 cm

Rainfall Hyetograph:
The graph of rainfall (in)
vs time (5 min).

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 06-Dec-20

Point Rainfall

Point rainfall, also known as station rainfall refers to

the rainfall data of a station. Depending upon the
need, data can be listed as daily, weekly, monthly,
seasonal or annual values for various periods.

Graphically these data are represented as plots of

magnitude vs. chronological time in the form of a bar
diagram or in the form of rainfall hydrograph.

(Aden Airport, Khor-Maksar)

600

500
Annual Rainfall (mm)

400

300

200

100

0
1948 1953 1958 1963 1968 1973 1978 1983 1988 1993

Year

Rainfall Bar Chart

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 06-Dec-20

Example 6: For a point rainfall data given in table

below, compute the maximum rainfall depth and
intensities for 30 min, 1 hr, and 2 hrs.
Time (min) Rainfall (in) Time (min) Rainfall (in)
0
5 0.02 80 0.54
10 0.34 85 0.76
15 0.1 90 0.51
20 0.04 95 0.44
25 0.19 100 0.25
30 0.48 105 0.25
35 0.5 110 0.22
40 0.5 115 0.15
45 0.51 120 0.09
50 0.16 125 0.09
55 0.31 130 0.12
60 0.66 135 0.03
65 0.36 140 0.01
70 0.39 145 0.02
75 0.36 150 0.01

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5
Rainfall (in)

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
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)

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 06-Dec-20

Cumulative Running Totals

Time (min) Rainfall (in)
Rainfall (in) 30 min 1 hr 2 hr
0 0.00
5 0.02 0.02
10 0.34 0.36
15 0.1 0.46
20 0.04 0.50
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 2.50 4.15
70 0.39 4.56 2.39 4.20
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 3.00 5.50
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 1.40 4.32 8.13
125 0.09 8.22 1.05 4.05 8.20
130 0.12 8.34 0.92 3.78 7.98
135 0.03 8.37 0.70 3.45 7.91
140 0.01 8.38 0.49 2.92 7.88
145 0.02 8.40 0.36 2.18 7.71
150 0.01 8.41 0.28 1.68 7.24

Max. depth (in) 0.76 3.07 5.56 8.20

Max. intensity (in/hr) 9.12 6.14 5.56 4.1
0.76*12=9.12 3.07*2=6.14 5.56*1=5.56 8.20*1/2=4.1

9.00

8.00

7.00
Cumulative Rainfall (in)

6.00

5.00

4.00

3.00

2.00

1.00

0.00
0 30 60 90 120 150
Time (min)

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06-Dec-20

35