Some questions about precipitation and stream flow data for Hydrologic modelling

[PB713]

I am trying to model an event scale hydrologic model for a 210 square mile watershed in Maine, USA using HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS. For event scale modeling, I would assume that I need fine temporal scale data (15 min interval data)
Here is the data availability in the watershed:

Stream flow Data (Data Source: USGS)
There is one stream flow gauge in the watershed. It records the stream discharge at 15 minute interval. The data availability starts from 2007.

Precipitation Data (Data Source: NOAA)
There is no precipitation gauge in the watershed. The closest precipitation gauge is about 35 miles from the centroid of the watershed. But the gauge stopped monitoring after 2000. The nearest gauge with data after 2007 is about 50 miles from the centroid.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this.

Additionally, here are a couple more questions:
1. Can I reliably use a precipitation gauge that lies 50 miles away from the watershed?
2. Can I calibrate my model parameters by running a model using daily data (24 hr interval data), and then use these parameters to reliably run a model with finer scale data (15 minute interval data)?

 

[cvg]

no, 50 miles away is probably too far
not sure how you are calibrating either a hydrology or hydraulic model without adequate data
you might be able to find radar data for a large storm. a hydro-meteorologist could use that to produce rainfall data. It might be sketchy, again because you have no rain gage data to calibrate it. and you would not have a good estimate of the return interval, but it would be better than nothing

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26649276