Precipitation Type Specific Radar Reflectivity-rain Rate Relationships for Warsaw, Poland

Abstract

Implementation of weather radar precipitation estimates into hydrology, especially urban hydrology practice in Poland, requires the introduction of more precise radar reflectivity versus rain rate (Z-R) relationships accounting for drop size distribution (DSD) specific for different precipitation phases. We explored the development of precipitation type dependent Z-R relationship on the basis of approximately two years of DSD recordings at high temporal resolution of ten seconds. We divided the recorded data into four separate precipitation-type groups: rain, snow, rain-with-snow, and hail. The Z-R relationships for rain and rainwith- snow showed a strong resemblance to the well-known Marshall- Palmer Z-R power-type relationship for rain. In the case of snowfall, we found that both the multiplication factor and the exponent coefficients in the Z-R formula have smaller values than for rain. In contrast, for hail precipitation these parameters are higher than for rain, especially the multiplication factor.