Use of the Rain Gauge during snow season

Reporting of Snowfall.

 

The precipitation/rain guage measures rainfall in millimetres. To be able to measure snowfall, a heater has been installed to melt the snow and measure it as rain.

 

A tipping bucket records precipitation electronically. It has a funnel, like a simple rain gauge, but the funnel leads to two tiny "buckets." The two buckets are balanced (somewhat like a sea-saw) and each holds .2 mm of water. When one bucket fills, it tips down and is emptied while the other bucket fills with rain water. Each tip of the buckets causes the device to record an increase of .2 mm of rain.

 

Snowfall measurement determines the equivalent amount of water in a unit of snow. To obtain this ratio, the snow must be collected and melted into water. Generally, 10 mm of snow produces 1 mm of water. However, it can take up to 100 mm of loose, fluffy snow though as little as 2-4 mm of wet, compact snow to produce a millimetre of water.