How Rain and Snow is measured?

354 viewsOtherPlanetary Science

Living in California city with little rain and no snow and never understood rain/snow being measured in inches. I don’t even understand it in the slightest like someone said they got 4 inches of rain where they lived and I thought okay so probably not a lot and then they kept talking and it made me realize oh that is a lot? I just don’t get it! Any of it. Can someone explain why inches are used and what it means 2 inches of rain vs 4, etc.

Thanks!

In: Planetary Science

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

you put out a tube with inches marked on it so that it collects rain.

then you look at it to see how many inches of water are in it.

4 inches of water effectivly means that if the water pooled up instead of flowing, it would be 4 inches deep everywhere.

snow is slightly different, but the same. for snow you just put out a flat board, let snow fall on it, measure it, then sweep the board off.

but since snow doesnt flow, everywhere will have that many inches of snow.

You are viewing 1 out of 3 answers, click here to view all answers.