Measuring rainfall

[WendyS]

Living in an area which is threatened with an imminent hosepipe ban because of drought, and watching the rain falling all day today, I am curious to know if there's an easy way of measuring rainfall I know I could place a simple high sided dish out in the garden to prevent some rainfall splashing out, but how accurate would this be?

[sddsddean]

Easiest way to make a pluviometer (rain gauge) is to get a plastic funnel and put it into a jar, which collects the water. The funnel should be a bit wider than the jar, so no rain gets into the jar 'by accident'. You will need to work out the area of the funnel and the jar, and using a bit of basic maths you can mark the jar in inches/cm's of rainfall based on the area of the funnel. This is basically all a 'proper' pluviometer is and will be fairly accurate (according to how stringent you are at making your observations).

[Toureman]

Rain gauge's are available on Ebay �0.99-�20, save yourselfe a lot of trouble with the above and buy one!

[sddsddean]

Didn't realise they were that cheap!!

[Goofy]

or go to any garden centre and get one.
Or you can get a weather centre from �50 upwards which will measure rainfall, wind speed, temperature etc. Great fun knowing that it is minus 7 outside without having to go out there to test!

[Toureman]

Don't go to an expensive garden centre!

The up to �20 I quoted will also buy you a weather centre.

[Goofy]

I spent rather more than 20 on the weather centre I bought the OH for christmas.
Mind you, it does transfer all the info to the pc, and includes Dew Point, wind-chill etc.