boring & stupid weather question

suns rival

another question from yours truly.

they measure amount of rainfall in inches. how do they do it? how do i know if it is an inch of rain or something?

damn it....

GreenTeaDisease

suns rival wrote:

another question from yours truly.

they measure amount of rainfall in inches. how do they do it? how do i know if it is an inch of rain or something?

damn it....

lol, I was just wondering about this today!!!

also at lunch today we were trying to figure out how they know how many calories a certain food has.

Brain of J.Lo

I think I've always just imagined that the national weather service has like an official rain-catching bucket to determine the amount of rain.

GreenTeaDisease

Brain of J.Lo wrote:

I think I've always just imagined that the national weather service has like an official rain-catching bucket to determine the amount of rain.

that's the thing, how big is the bucket? rain would have to be measured in 3 dimensional volume, not one dimensional inches.

Brain of J.Lo

GreenTeaDisease wrote:

that's the thing, how big is the bucket? rain would have to be measured in 3 dimensional volume, not one dimensional inches.

I don't know. I'm baffled.

suns rival

come on guys. im serious.

Jeanie

rain gauges.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_gauge

GreenTeaDisease

suns rival wrote:

come on guys. im serious.

so am I!

Brain of J.Lo

suns rival wrote:

come on guys. im serious.

I'm sort of serious too...sadly.

norm

suns rival wrote:

come on guys. im serious.

what are we your own personal google?!?!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_gauge

GreenTeaDisease

cutback wrote:

what are we your own personal google?!?!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_gauge

it still doesn't make sense though, that rain gauge is measuring volume, you can't express it in inches!

Jeanie

GreenTeaDisease wrote:

lol, I was just wondering about this today!!!

also at lunch today we were trying to figure out how they know how many calories a certain food has.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie

suns rival

just too lazy to search the topics.

Jeanie

GreenTeaDisease wrote:

it still doesn't make sense though, that rain gauge is measuring volume, you can't express it in inches!

because they can't measure volume, so they measure depth.

ClimberInOz

Think of it this way. If you were to replace your town with a big sheet of plastic and prevent any runoff, an inch of rain would mean that there would be an inch of water on your plastic sheet.

It doesn't matter how big your measuring device is, as long as its sides are paralell. Whatever depth the rain fills it up to, is how much rain has fallen.

Lesbelges

GreenTeaDisease wrote:

that's the thing, how big is the bucket? rain would have to be measured in 3 dimensional volume, not one dimensional inches.

No, inches works fine since it's dependent on the area of the bucket. A narrow bucket will have less rain fall into it while a wide bucket will have more rain fall into it. The narrow bucket which fills up faster but receives less rain will fill up at the same rate as the wide bucket which requires more rain to fill up the same height! There you go, hope it makes sense!!

Jeanie

ClimberInOz wrote:

Think of it this way. If you were to replace your town with a big sheet of plastic and prevent any runoff, an inch of rain would mean that there would be an inch of water on your plastic sheet.

It doesn't matter how big your measuring device is, as long as its sides are paralell. Whatever depth the rain fills it up to, is how much rain has fallen.

Thank goodness you're here!

I've got no idea really!

suns rival

ClimberInOz wrote:

Think of it this way. If you were to replace your town with a big sheet of plastic and prevent any runoff, an inch of rain would mean that there would be an inch of water on your plastic sheet.

It doesn't matter how big your measuring device is, as long as its sides are paralell. Whatever depth the rain fills it up to, is how much rain has fallen.

whew! i am enlightened again.

norm

GreenTeaDisease wrote:

it still doesn't make sense though, that rain gauge is measuring volume, you can't express it in inches!

whadda want from me? i'm not johnny mountain* over here....:p :D






* - yep real weatherman.....been on the air in la for 30 years....:)

Brain of J.Lo

cutback wrote:

whadda want from me? i'm not johnny mountain* over here....:p :D






* - yep real weatherman.....been on the air in la for 30 years....:)

awesome name... we have glenn "hurricane" schwartz. he wears a bow tie. lol

norm

Brain of J.Lo wrote:

awesome name... we have glenn "hurricane" schwartz. he wears a bow tie. lol

well my favorite local weatherman has to be dallas raines.......and i believe that is his real name...:eek: