Abstract
In this study, rainfall analysis is carried out to investigate the areal rainfall characteristics of three major basins in western Saudi Arabia. The drainage area of study basins ranges from 395 to 3500 km
2
. Records of rainfall intensity and durations were collected from nine recording rain gauge located in these basins. The mean areal rainfall depth is determined and used to compute the mean areal rainfall intensity for all the recoded rainfall events. The data were also utilized to compute frequency distributions of areal rainfall intensity and duration. Exponential distributions are fitted for the areal rainfall intensity and durations. The fitted distributions are found in a good agreement with the observed frequencies.