Measuring Rainfall

The topic for this article was suggested by a reader and it hit a chord that made me dive a bit too deep into this topic. But I think I can pull an article out of it that is not a dissertation.

We all listen too rainfall measurements but most of us don’t have an understanding about how it is measured on a wide scale. Scientifically, just about everything is measured in the metric system, even here in the good ol’ U.S. of A., but we still measure rainfall totals in inches. That’s done for two reasons. Firs, everyone knows the scale of inches and feet and can recognize that amount. Second, even when the rest of the world was switching to millimeters and centimeters we just stayed with inches.

It’s also interesting how we use depth to measure a volumetric standard, saying that we use inches instead of gallons to measure the rain. The only real conclusion that I can find is that we measure in depth rather than by volume due to the imperfectness of rain patterns. If you listen to KBUK the morning after a rain they will announce the rain totals from listeners in the area and all these different places. Even though they are relatively close together, some have different amounts of rainfall totals. Everyone who sends in these reports has a rain gauge to get the measurements, but what do the professionals use?

Airports are used to get most rainfall totals nationwide as pilots need to know the weather conditions before flying and they use an automated system that gathers just about everything meteorologically, pressure, temperature,wind speed, etc. These systems being automated use a simple rain gauge with a float that relays the measurement to the tower, which passes on the information. There are some every complex systems that you can use to measure rainfall, such as ones that will electronically separate and track just the water molecules from the rain to find the true rainfall totals, but in this case the simplest solution is the best.

The new semester has already started. I felt the break flew by. If you have any ideas or suggestions for articles you can contact the paper and I will get those messages forwarded to me or you can contact me directly with this email address tomy3290@gmail.com. Any topics are greatly appreciated. Now onto your local weather.

With the wet weather moving on from our area we are back to our normal Texas winter with highs in the low 70’s partly cloudy with little to no chances of rain and lows in the upper 40’s. There are no astronomical events to report this week. Thanks and Gig’em!