Lecture#3

Precipitation

Faculty of Engineering
Lecturer: M. Hamid Elmy Water Recourse Eng. Dep.
Hamid.elmy@gmail.com Prep: M. Hamid elmy Nangarhar University1
 Precipitation 2

Precipitation is the primary input to the hydrologic cycle

 The process in which

water from atmosphere

returns back to the

earth, in the form of

rainfall, snow, hail &

drizzle

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 Formation of Precipitation 3

 Water evaporate from surface of; streams, rivers, oceans,

ponds and also from lands and plants in the form of vapor.

 These water vapor collected in air & behaves like a gas,

under a normal temperature & pressure, obey the gas law

 As the atmosphere reaches its holding capacity, further

addition of vapor will get condensed on the surfaces
 The evaporated water returns to the Earth’s surface in
differ forms, known as precipitation
 The major part occurs as rain & minor as snow, ignor
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 Weather and Precipitation 4

 Precipitation in an area dependent on weather condition

(atmo. Pressure, temperature, humidity..), the interaction
between these variables leads to form winds and
cyclones, which cause precipitation.

 The branch of science deal with study of weather is

metrology, hence a hydrologist is dependent upon
metrologies, because of rainfall prediction and
measurement

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 Formation of Clouds 5

 A cloud is formed by the cooling and condensation of the

rising vapor (air) into some visible particles.

 A cloud can contains ice particles and small droplets of W

 Depending upon the elevation, they may be classified as:

Form of Drop size Fall speed
 High clouds: 4-18 km precipitation Dia (mm) m/s
Drizzle 0.04-0.5 1.0
 Medium clouds: 2-8 km Rain drops 0.5-4.0 10

 Low clouds: 0-2 km Hail stone 8-50 20-50

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Formation of Clouds 6

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 Types of Precipitation 7

1- Convective P: its in the form of local thunder storms and tropics.

The air close to warm earth gets heated and rise, cools to form cloud
and explode in to a thunder storm.

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 Types of Precipitation 8

2- Orographic P: the mechanical lifting of moist air over mountain

barriers cause heavy precipitation on the windward side of mountains

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 Types of Precipitation 9

3- Frontal P: (conflict between two air masses) when 2 air mass due
to contrasting temperature and density clash, condensation and
precipitation occurs at contact surface

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 Types of Precipitation 10

4- Cyclonic P: due to lifting of moist air converting into a low pressure

(due to pressure difference created by the unequal heating of the
earth’s surface)

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 Measurement of Precipitation 11

 Rainfall is measured with a network of rain gauges,

 Rain gage is an instrument that captures water and

measures its accumulated volume during a certain time.

 the P depth for the given period is equal to the volume

divided by the collection area of the gage.

 The average P intensity is equal to the P depth divided by

the length of the period.

P is measured by depth (mm, in) & intensity (mm/hr, in/hr..)

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 Measurement of Precipitation 12

 Rain gauges either be, 1-recording or 2- non recording type

 A non Automatic or recording rain gauge ( Symon’s Rain
Gage): measures the total accumulated volume of rain for one
time period, usually one day.
 Automatic or recording rain gauge: records the time it takes for
rainfall depth accumulation therefore it provide not only measure
rainfall but also rainfall intensity, and of the following types:
1- tipping bucket rain gage 2- weighing type
3- float type rain gauge
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Measurement of Precipitation 13

Symon’s rain gauge

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 Measurement of Precipitation 14

Tipping bucket rain gauge

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 Measurement of Precipitation 15

Float type rain gauge Weighing bucket rain gauge

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Measurement of Precipitation 16

Mass Curve of Rainfall

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 Measurement of Precipitation 17

 Radars
Radars is greatly applied in the study of storm mechanism
( areal extent, orientation, and movement of rain storms)

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 Rain gauge Network 18

Some factors to restrict the number of rain gauges

• Economic consideration
• Topographic and accessibility
Rain gauges must be so located as to avoid
Exposure to wind effect or interception by trees
and buildings nearby.
The best location is open plane ground like Airport
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 Rain gauge Network 19

Rain gauges should be:

• 1m above ground level is standard

• All gauges in the catchment should be the same height

• 2 to 4 times away from an isolated object

• Shielded the gauges in windy site to protect them

• For sloping area shall be parallel to ground

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 Rain-gauge Network Densities 20

The number of rain-gages to be reacted in given area(WMO) recom.

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 Precipitation Data 21

The length of record required for a stable frequency is recomd. As:

The mean of 35 consecutive years RF observed is called (AAR)

Before using RF data for analysis, its necessary to check the data for:

• Missing data

• Consistency of data

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