Our Rain Gauge Threw in the Towel

The day before yesterday, after a stormy night of yet more rainfall, I walked to where my rain gauge is located to see the results of the latest downfall and saw this:

Broke

I looked around for the glass beaker portion that catches the rainfall and gauges it against markings inscribed on the sides.  I rifled through the grass and assumed that it probably fell into the cattle trough.  I told Tricia that I would need to pump out the trough to find it and that would give me an opportunity to clean out the sediment at the bottom of the tank.  Then I looked again the next day and spotted it laying in a mud puddle.

The rain gauge is pretty old and had served its purpose well, but this year, with all the rains, it is as if the gauge felt over-worked and jumped out of its mounting bracket and fell to its watery death below.

Weather records I've found for our area shows that we average 60 inches of rainfall per year.  We mark down our daily rainfall totals and chart it on a table on the door to our freezer.  It gives us a good look at historical totals and trends over time.  In 2013 we collected 63 inches and in 2014 we collected 58 inches of rainfall, so that puts it right on the money.  I though it would be interesting to see where we are with rain this year at this time as compared to previous years at this time by looking at the numbers we've recorded.

• At the end of May 2013, it had rained a whopping 37.45 inches.
• At the end of May 2014, it had rained 23 inches.
• At the end of May 2015, it has rained 33.85 inches.

So after having a rest in 2014, the rain gauge is getting its workout again this year.

It was about time to replace the old rain gauge anyway.  The increments were wore and it was very hard to read the tenths markings.  I found a cheap-o rain gauge that will measure up to 5 inch rainfall events, and I mounted in on the same post after I took the old one off.

I'm a little concerned about the durability of a plastic rain gauge like this out in the sun, but like I mentioned before, this one only cost $2.69.  I'm also not impressed with the mounting bracket on this one, but the raised increments are easier to read than the previous rain gauge that had the increments printed on the glass vial.  It appears we're on course to hit 60 inches again this year.