Rain in a bucket?

JimRB · Dec 26, 2015

Weatherunderground claims we had 3.31 inches in December. That is very suspect as the airport is about 8 miles north of me. I have seen 4.5 inches in my rain guage a few days ago. I know I emptied it once before that and had maybe 3 inches in it. Last night I emptied another inch. Anyhow, in my neighborhood I am betting we had between 7 and 10 inches in the past 7 days. Every creek, stream and river was 2 feet or more above flood stage.

Here is another place you can check statistics but they have not published their December data. National Weather Service Climate

ruffdog · Dec 26, 2015

Actually, the bucket method is fairly accurate because with the tapered sides, it takes into account of evaporation loss by the time you read it. Have a great 2016 everybody!

4570Man · Dec 26, 2015

My grandpa certainly bought a bigger rain barrel then needed. He bought a 2,600 gallon tank off a water truck for $200. It is made from 1/2 steel and weighs about 6,000 pounds empty.

Wagtail · Dec 27, 2015

gwstang said:
Oh Lawdy! Ya'll have cracked me up! I really like the "stepped on a poodle"...lol :laughing:

The bucket is about 10' out from the barn. I had a "rain gauge" some years back but kept forgetting to empty it before a big freeze and it would crack. I sort of like the bucket model, you know like someone asking about what size tractor to buy and everyone says to go a size larger than needed.

Right... I forgot about freezing temperatures and expansion. My 'bad'. The worst I get here is a frost of about -2*C, and that always 'burns off' in a couple of hours after sunrise.

There is a type of in-ground metal gauge that are used by regular folks who report to the bureau of meteorology. Hmmm... <Google: metal rain gauge>

Ah HA! There are heaps of examples and styles available. That just might be your answer, Mate.

gwstang · Dec 28, 2015

I have seen a type of rain gauge that has some sort of deal where the rain goes through it and is measure and it automatically dumps it so it won't stay in and freeze. It doesn't get too cold way down here in Alabama very often. Just enough to be annoying to the Yankees that wander down here....lol. If it gets down to 35F, they ask why we have heavy clothes/jackets on? It's cold! Nahhhh they say, it ain't cold yet!

EddieWalker · Dec 30, 2015

On Sunday I received between 3 3/4 and 3 7/8 inches of rain at my place as measured in my rain gauge. The five gallon buckets that I had sitting outside that collected water where half full. I didn't measure how deep the water in them was, but would guess it was in the 8 inch range. Given that so much more water ends up in a bucket then what I get in my rain gauge, I think that the bucket is very unreliable to estimating rain fall.

mx1alex · Dec 30, 2015

Technically a 5 gal bucket can be more accurate than your average run of the mill rain gauge. The wider the opening the more accurate it is. NOAA uses an 8' opening on their manual rain gauges and the CoCoRaHS network uses 4" openings.