eli5 How do they calculate how many inches of rain has fallen?

504 viewsOtherPlanetary Science

Where I live it does not rain a lot. When it does the news always say that it rain 1/8 of an inch or so, but I can see that my pool has increased 2 or 3 inches.

I don’t think this could be from runoff as the edges if the pool are angles away from the pool to prevent runoff from entering the pool. I have also had buckets left out where there is significantly more water than was reported.

Any reasoning for this? Could the rain vary so much that the weather station is just getting a significantly different amount of rain?

Thanks

In: Planetary Science

6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The rain is collected in a container and the depth of water is measured. It is that simple. You need a straight sided container with the opening the same size as the base.

Yes the amount of rain can easily vary between locations (just like any weather) so you might get more or less than the nearest weather station.

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