MEASURING PRECIPITATION

MEASURING PRECIPITATION Rainfall is usually mea­sured by an instrument called the rain guage, which can be operated on a simple level merely by setting out a straightsided,' flat-bottomed fan and measuring the depth to which water accumulates in a particular period. Precipi­tation is generally stated in units of inches or centimetres that fall per unit of time. Snowfall is measured by melting a sample column of snow and reducing it to an equivalent in water.