Considerations in setting a rain-gauge
station include
• The ground must be level and in the open and the
instrument must represent a horizontal catch
surface.
• The raingauge must be set as near the ground as
possible to reduce wind effects.
• The raingauge must be set sufficiently high to
prevent splashing, flooding etc.
• The instrument must be surrounded by an open
fenced area of at least 5.5m x 5.5m. No object must
be closer to the raingauge than 30m or twice the
height of the obstruction.
MEASUREMENT OF RAINFALL
• The following are the main types of rain-guages
used for measurement of rainfall:
[Link]-automatic rain-guage : This is also
known as non-recording rain-guage. Symon’s
rain guage is the instrument prescribed by use
at all Government rain-guage stations
throughout India.
[Link] rain guage [Recording rain-
guage]: (a) Weighing bucket rain-guage (b)
Tipping bucket rain-guage (c) Float type rain-
guage
SYMON’S RAINGUAGE
Non-recording Raingauges
• These raingauges just collect the rainwater but do not record
the quantity of rainfall.
• The most extensively used non-recording raingauge in India –
Symon’s gauge.
• Circular collecting area of 12.7 cm diameter connected to a
funnel. The rim of the collector is set in a horizontal plane at a
height of 30.5cm above the GL.
• The funnel discharges the rainfall catch into a receiving vessel.
The funnel and collecting vessel (bottle) are housed in a
metallic container.
• Water collected in the bottle is measured using a suitably
graduated measuring jar with 0.1mm accuracy.
• Rainfall is measured in mm or cm of water depth
• The rainfall is measured every day at 08.30 hours IST.
There are three types of recording rain gauges—tipping bucket gauge, weighing
gauge and float gauge.
Tipping bucket rain gauge. This consists of a cylindrical receiver 30 cm diameter
with a funnel inside . Just below the funnel a pair of tipping buckets is pivoted such
that when one of the bucket receives a rainfall of 0.25 mm it tips and empties into a
tank below, while the other bucket takes its position and the process is repeated.
The tipping of the bucket actuates on electric circuit which causes a pen to move on
a chart wrapped round a drum which revolves by a clock mechanism. This type
cannot record snow.
Weighing type rain gauge. In this type of rain-gauge, when a certain weight of
rainfall is collected in a tank, which rests on a spring-lever balance, it makes a pen
to move on a chart wrapped round a clockdriven drum. The rotation of the drum sets
the time scale while the vertical motion of the pen records the cumulative
precipitation.
Float type rain gauge. In this type, as the rain is collected in a float chamber, the
float moves up which makes a pen to move on a chart wrapped round a clock driven
drum. When the float chamber fills up, the water siphons out automatically through a
siphon tube kept in an interconnected siphon chamber. The clockwork revolves the
drum once in 24 hours. The clock mechanism needs rewinding once in a week
when the chart wrapped round the drum is also replaced. This type of gauge is used
by IMD.
This is the standard recording type raingauge in India (IS:
5325). The vertical lines in the chart correspond to sudden
emptying of the float chamber by syphonic action, which
resets the pen to zero level.
Float/Syphon Type
Test for Consistency of
Record
Some common causes for inconsistency of record
– Shifting of the raingauge to a new location
– Neighbourhood of the station is undergoing significant
changes
– Change in the ecosystem due to natural calamities such
as forest fires, landslides etc
– Errors in observation from a certain date
•Check for inconsistency of record is done by the double
mass curve technique (based on the principle that when
each recorded data comes to same parent population, they
will be consistent.
Double mass curve
• Let X be the station where inconsistency in
rainfall records is observed.
• Select a group of about 5 to 10 base stations in
the neighbourhood of station X.
• Data of annual or monthly mean rainfall of station
X as well as the average rainfall of the group of
base stations over a long time period is arranged
in reverse chronological order ie. the latest
record is the first entry and the oldest record is
the last entry in the list.
• Thus older records are brought to the new
regime at X.
• • The more homogeneous the base station
records are, the more accurate will be the
corrected values at station X.
• • A change in slope is taken as significant only if
it persists for more than 5 years.
• • The double mass curve technique is also useful
in checking arithmetical errors in transferring
rainfall data from one record to another.
Presentation of Rainfall Data
Mass Curve of Rainfall
• It is a plot of accumulated precipitation against
time, plotted in chronological order.
• Records of float type, weighing bucket type etc
raingauges are of this form.
• It gives information on duration and magnitude of
a [Link] at various time intervals in a
storm = slope of the curve.
• It can be prepared for non-recording raingauges
also if the approximate start and end of a storm
are known.
Mass curve of rainfall
Hyetograph
• It is a plot of rainfall intensity against time interval.
• Time interval depends on the purpose (urban drainage
problems – small durations, flood flow computations from
large catchments~ 6h).
• It can be derived from the mass curve of rainfall.
• It is represented as a bar chart.
• It is useful in developing design storms to predict
extreme floods.
• Area under a hyetograph = total precipitation received in
that time period.
Hyetograph of a storm