Version 2 of the Rainfall Intensity software is now available! It corrects many of the "bugs" reported in the previous version.

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USER'S MANUAL

REQUIRED DATABASES

Create a "rainfall" database

Create a "rainfall_stats" database

Set each database as a System DSN to allow connection to the RAIN software

RAINSTART

Open the RAIN software

Log On to RAIN software programs

RAINDIGITIZER

Getting Started - Things to Do Before You Begin Digitizing

Log On

Link to your "rainfall" database

Digitize a strip chart and save as an x,y ascii file on your hard drive

QC the digitized strip charts

Load digitized ascii file(s) to your "rainfall" database

Convert digitized ascii file(s) to meaningful rainfall data (time-depth series) and store in your "rainfall" database

RAINPLOT

Select a dataset (select data to analyze)

Quality control the selected data (view raw rainfall data)

Analyze the selected data using predictive statistical curve fits (includes IDF analysis)

Create a report (automated reports showing various results)

Show monthly and seasonal summaries

Display data on map using RAINMAP

Edit hydrologic default settings (customize program settings such as "months that comprise a water year" and others)

RAINSHARE

Log On

Edit, add, or delete data in your "rainfall" database

Export or import your "rainfall" database

Create a "Rainfall_Stats" Database (required)

Download a sample "rainfall_stats" database (MS Access) (43 KB Zipped....Jan 23, 2003)

The "rainfall_stats" database is designed to temporarily store summary statistics of rainfall-intensity data. Once this database has been created and placed on the user's hard drive, it is populated automatically by the RAIN software. Specifically, RAINPLOT is used to retreive rainfall-intensity data from your "rainfall" database and place summaries of these data into a temporary database called "rainfall_stats". The summary data (rainfall-intensity maxima, dates of maxima, and others) are used for analyses in RAINPLOT. The "rainfall_stats" database is overwritten automatically each time a user selects a new dataset for analysis.

Once the database has been created, the user does not need to be aware of any naming conventions because the entire contents of the database are generated automatically by the RAINPLOT program. In other words, the user simply needs to create the original database and place it in the proper RAINPLOT folder on the hard drive. This database will be automatically used over and over by the software. The "rainfall_stats" database is included with the original RAIN software; the following section describes its schema of tables and fields.

Tables, fields, and relationships

"Rainfall_stats" consists of the ten tables shown below. The fields for each of the tables are also shown. The tables in the "rainfall_stats" database do not have any primary or foreign key constraints; they are simply used to hold the results of the current analysis. In all tables the station field is set to a TEXT(50). All fields named start_date, end_date, and date are date/time fields. All other fields are either numeric or text. Table relationships are not required.

Go to the main User's Manual page.