You may have heard the term “it’s raining cats and dogs,” and knew that if you stepped outside, you wouldn’t see Fluffy or Fido falling from the sky. Instead, you know that the term means it’s raining heavily. Rainfall is measured in inches and fractions of inches. A sprinkle is generally one tenth of an inch of rainfall or less per hour, while moderate rainfall is from one tenth to one third of an inch per hour. When it gets heavy and soggy is when it falls at a rate that is over one third of an inch per hour.

There are many different types of rain gauges used to get a rainfall measurement. The first is the standard eight inch rain gauge. The second way to measure new rainfall is by weighing a bucket of rainwater. The third type is called the tipping bucket method. Lastly, there is the high tech electronic rain gauge. Rain gauges can be plastic or glass and are quite a convenient way to determine whether it was just a tiny sprinkle or whether it was raining cats and dogs. They are typically placed on a fence post or any other platform that is without obstruction. There are calibration marks on the side of the gauge, and the rainfall measurements are read directly off of it.

A tipping bucket records precipitation on a rotating drum or electronically. A simple rain gauge has a funnel, but the funnel leads to two tiny buckets. The buckets are balanced similarly to a see-saw and each holds one-hundredth of an inch of water. When one bucket fills up, it tips down and is emptied as the other bucket fills with precipitation. Each tip of the bucket causes the rotating drum to record an increase of one-hundredth of an inch of rain. This method is not for when it’s raining cats and dogs.

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