Rain, blessed rain ! (And a question)

[Carol Dee]

Well finally we are getting rain. It has been VERY hot and DRY this summer. No rain at all for over 6 weeks. (Probably close to 2 months.) Even though it has rained all around us. This afternoon it rained HARD. Still raining as I type. But the electronic rain gauge quit working and I have no idea how much we are getting.

That brings me to question how do you all measure your rain falls? What works best for you.

 

[Smart Red]

I have a plastic & metal rain gauge I set out in the open near the driveway. Around here, I do have to take it in before freezing weather, but it works well for me. On the cheap, I often use tuna or cat food cans. Anything that has straight sides will work. That and a ruler will work just as well as my "bought-en" one.

 

[thistlebloom]

Yaaaay!! So glad you're getting some rain finally!
I used to measure rain, kinda sorta, but when our JR was a pup he chewed the rain gauge up. ( A plastic jobbie ). Now I don't really even think about it...

 

[wsmoak]

There are enough dishes/bowls/buckets/trays outside that something will catch the water and I can get an idea of how much rain we got.

Beyond that, I turn over a shovel of garden dirt and look at how wet it is, and keep an eye on the plant leaves to see how they're doing and if I need to water.

-Wendy

 

[baymule]

So glad you are getting rain!!!!!

 

[schmije]

We also got our first rain in a couple of months today. It was wonderful! We have a plastic rain gauge on an old fence post near our main garden. It's at eye-level, so it's easy to read. We got three quarters of an inch today!

 

[digitS']

We don't normally get enuf rain during the summer months to worry about. I mean, less than 2" for the entire 3 months is normal. I mean, we think that a storm with 1/4" of rain is a Big Deal .

Do you know about Weather Underground, Carol Dee? Lots of folks are connected to a network and their home weather stations feed information in automatically.

I find that the information is reasonably accurate - just by comparing other nearby stations and official information from the Weather Service & Department of Transportation, Ag Agencies, etc.

There is a middle school about 2 miles from my large veggie garden. A science teacher or someone has connected their station and I've got that bookmarked on the bar in the browser. Then I can go to the official local Weather Service, still using wunderground.com. On that page, there is information and links to over 20 of these volunteer stations within about 20 miles. I can sit and watch them update (if I wanted to) every few minutes/hours, depending on their programming.

I was disappointed to learn that "The Weather Channel" bought the Weather Underground a few weeks ago. Dang! Big commercial player! I hope they won't change it too much anytime soon.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

I like Weather Underground, too. I have it as a desk top icon, and I can see the current radar in just a few seconds. They are correct in forecasts as often as the local TV channel, if not more often. Sorry to hear about the Weather Channel buying them.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

We also got a very nice rain this morning. 3/4" in an hour.

I always use tin cans for rain gauges. They are perfect and the price is right. I've seen elaborate plastic gauges (with rhinestones even) in garden centers for $9 - what a waste of money and materials, not to mention the pollution when you toss the broken plastic in the garbage.

 

[ducks4you]

I had to wait until 3am, but we FINALLY got a good downpour of about 1 1/4" last night. (Family is on vacation in CO, but the dogs and I got up to watch it rain. ) The ground still looks wet. My horses are on hay and cut off from both the north and south pastures to let them recover. I truly believe that we are breaking this drought. For those of you NOT in the Midwest drought, it started with a very dry Spring. 2" of rain in July is not uncommon in Central IL, but it's been brutally dry bc, again, the dry Spring. I just look at all of the plastic cups and stuff that I leave out bc I'm busy (or lazy) and see how much water accumulates in them after a rain. I, too, think they are just as accurate as the expensive gauges.