Intercomparison of precipitation measured between automatic and manual precipitation gauge in Nepal

An inter-comparison of precipitation data of manual and automatic precipitation gauge was carried out for four stations of Nepal for the period of 2011-2014. Manual recorded precipitation is used as reference to calculate deviation for automatic recording. This study has attempted to quantify and understand the differences in precipitation amounts between manual and automatic recording. In addition, the possible causes behind the disparity of automatic and manual observational data are also discussed. In case of selected stations, the data quality is fairly satisfactory. The daily deviation between manual recorded and 24 h aggregated automatic recorded precipitation data are calculated for only those days when both gauges are functional. In normal operation the automatic recorded precipitation is underestimated on an average of 10% compared to manual recorded precipitation. The minimum of 5 years of overlapping data still seems to be low for the developing countries like Nepal where timely maintenance, calibration, and up keeping is not possible.