PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION STORM INTENSITY-DURATION-FREQUENCY CHARTS. FINAL REPORT

Rainfall duration, amount, and intensity are among the major contributors to highway drainage and inundation problems. For the design of any hydrologic structure, ranging from the simplest rational flow rate estimates to the most sophisticated stormwater runoff simulation, design rainfall estimates of acceptance reliability are needed. A statistical analysis of all available continuous hourly and 15-minute duration rainfall records were used to develop an updated procedure for estimating design storms for Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was divided into five homogeneous regions using the statistically-derived 1-year 1-hour, 1-year 24-hour, 100-year 1-hour, and 100-year 24-hour rainfall duration-intensity storms. A set of rainfall duration-intensity curves were developed for each of the five regions, for seven return periods between 1 and 100 years and durations ranging from 5 minutes to 24 hours. As a secondary study the areal distribution of typical storms was analyzed and the average rainfall depth was plotted as a ratio of maximum point rainfall over the range of 0 to 2500 square miles.

• Corporate Authors:

  Pennsylvania State University, University Park

  Institute for Research on Land and Water Resources
  University Park, PA  United States  16802

  Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

  Office of Research and Special Studies, P.O. Box 2926
  Harrisburg, PA  United States  17120

  Federal Highway Administration

  Engineering Research and Development Bureau, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Aron, G
  • Wall, D J
  • White, E L
  • Dunn, C N
  • Kotz, D M
• Publication Date: 1986-5

Media Info

• Pagination: 64 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data analysis; Design storm; Frequency (Electromagnetism); Mathematical analysis; Rainfall; Statistical analysis; Surface drainage; Time duration
• Uncontrolled Terms: Duration; Rainfall intensity
• Old TRIS Terms: Highway drainage
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; I26: Water Run-off - Freeze-thaw;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00460248
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Federal Highway Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA-PA-85-032, LW8603
• Contract Numbers: 80533
• Files: TRIS, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Dec 31 1986 12:00AM