RAIN!

 Finally getting some much needed rain after several weeks of dry and sometimes 100* weather.

So far my rain gauge indicates .05" for the last two days. I sometimes doubt the accuracy of my rain gauge, so I bought a "NOAA Approved" model that I can use to dump a "calibrated" amount of water into the collection bucket on the weather station and see how accurate it is.

My rain gauge is of the "Tipping Bucket" type, and when calibrated they're quite accurate.

The rain falls into a collector can, and then drips through the hole in the center into the little buckets inside.

Collector:

 Tipping buckets:

 Each time the bucket tips, it trips a switch sending a "One Bucket Received" signal to the controller, incrementing the rainfall measurement by one unit. In my case, each tip of the bucket indicates .01" of rain received.

I'll fill the "Calibration Device" with water, and pour it into my collector and see if they agree. After I make my measurements, I'll delete the record in the database for the rainfall so as not to skew the data set by a 1" rain measurement.

I'm beginning to think you can't trust your eyeballs when it comes to determining the amount of rain you get. An inch of standing water in a pan outside after a storm passed by doesn't necessarily mean you received 1" of rain.

Just another thing to wrap my head around while I try and understand (or "grok", if you will) this particular aspect of meteorology.

Hope y'all have a good weekend!