Rain cometh

[ERNIEB]

After 2 months without a drop, finally rain/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Yesterday just about all day, a slow steady soaking kind od rain/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I won't be working much for the next few days, but we sure needed it. Rain and baby calves are always welcomed here/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif It's been coming down on and off today as well. We are under flash flood watch, so I guess I'll just stay home and enjoy it. Cooler temps are nice too. Folks, I guess summer is just about over.


Ernie

 

[Bird]

Me, too, Ernie./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif About .16" one day, .36" another, and light rain again today. I love it!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Just light showers off and on so far today, but over one inch./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Bird on 08/30/01 01:30 PM (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[geneP]

Bird, what are you using to masure rain to the hundredth of an inch? I'm lucky to get it to the nearest tenth!

I'm not trying to gloat because we've had lots of rain, but the weatherman says we have a chance at breaking the all time record for rainfall in August here in central Mississippi. We've already got third wettest locked in.

 

[Bird]

Gene, actually my little rain gauge is marked for tenths and a mark half way between the tenths, so I just guesstimate in between the marks. Ain't that what the professional weathermen do?/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Bird,

<font color=blue>guesstimate...Ain't that what the professional weathermen do?</font color=blue>

Professional weathermen may flip coins, count cricket chirps and measure the stripes on wooly caterpillers, but they never guesstimate. I learned this on TV so it must be true. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

PitbullMidwest

 

[RPM]

We just moved on to a drought watch in the SE corner of PA. Supposedly about 3" behind where we should be to date.

 

[ERNIEB]

Bird, I heard a guy on the radio today said he had an electronic rain gauge that measured total rainfall, and inches per hour. Never heard of such a thing myself.
We had a downpour today, a real frog strangler. I've got several gulleys across my driveway/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif The problem was with the soaking rain yesterday, the downpour today mostly ran off. Filled up the stock tanks/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
As far as my driveway goes I got a couple of things in my favor. It should start clearing tomorrow, my wife is off tomorrow,so she doesn't have to go any where, and I just happen to have a pile of base and a TC29D with a fel/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Ernie

 

[Bird]

Ernie, I've noticed the weather forecasters on the TV sometimes mention the amount of rain per hour, but I don't know what kind of equipment they're using. All I've seen was light showers, but went to town this morning (20 miles) and when we got back, a neighbor called my wife and said we had a brief downpour while we were gone, so just over an inch. No run off or puddles to amount to anything, but did fill some of the smaller cracks in the ground. Have fun tomorrow.

Bird

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The sophisticated weather centers used at airports and such have a little bucket that collects rain. Once the bucket 'fills' with 1/100th of an inch of water, it tips itself over, "clicks" a counter and resets itself upright. Of course, all this is hooked to a computer to measure the exact times of the "clicks".

They often have another gauge for heavy downpours. Its less accurate but the tiny bucket goes nuts during some storms.

 

[mikim]

we can figure amount of rain fall per, by how many tips of the bucket we get in a certain time frame. It's a 2 sided bucket on a center pivot. Each side holds exactly .01 inch then it tips, empties the full side and brings up the 2nd side to fill and each time it tips it passes a magnetic pickup that triggers a counter in the office. All ya gotta do is wait 10 minutes - figure the difference in the amount from start time to finish time - and multiply by 6 to get the per hour. It's an estimated 'cause sometimes it rains so fast that you lose some during the tips. The most accurate rain gauge we have is still the old 8" gauge. It's a funnel bucket 8" in diameter that funnels into a 2" tube that is about 24" long. ----- We use a ---ya ready?--- measuring stick stuck down into the tube to measure the water - write it down then empty the tube and wait for more rain. It's coming down like crazy right now - but the radar says it'll slow down soon. Suppose to keep raining through the weekend - so much for going to the country - again/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif Those in the southern area can check out the NWS radars by going to www.srh.noaa.gov and look for the NWS office nearest you.
mike