Cumulus Support

This is mine..

WOW! That's a very dry February!

Just to be different, here is the relevant section from my NOAA report for 2012...

2012 Total: 1059.6mm
So only 37mm different from yours Ray
'Flaming' June the wettest month of the year.

Thanks Mark. Strange how you got away with a drier December given your proximity. Overall, hardly any difference despite having different kit.

2012 readings from the lower Swansea Valley:
Wettest months:-
1. December 10.70 in (271.8 mm)
2. August 8.10 in (205.7 mm)
3. June 7.41 in (188.2 mm)

Year total - 63.87 in (1622.3 mm)

For all the reputation of UK and rain ("take your umbrella when you go there") the actual rainfall for the year does not seem to be that high.

For 2012 we were minus from normal every month except October
For 2012 689.2 mm actual vs 987 mm normal a 30% shortfall

Paul

Edited to show actual and normal for full year 2012

Paul,

We must be getting your rainfall as well as our own! But it's not just the amount of rain but the number of rain days. My station recorded more than 0.01" on 203 days last year. Put another way that's only 162 dry days or an average of 13.5 dry days a month.

2013 has started better but there's probably still some frozen snow in my gauge. Warmer weather with lots of rain is arriving tomorrow with some strong winds due on Monday night.

PaulMy wrote:For all the reputation of UK and rain ("take your umbrella when you go there") the actual rainfall for the year does not seem to be that high.

For 2012 we were minus from normal every month except October
689.2 mm actual vs 987 mm normal a 30% shortfall

Paul

I'm puzzled.
Did they relocate Ontario to the UK? Did Canada suddenly decide to revert history? Is there an agreement between the Queen and Quebec that we're unaware of?

So I didn't phrase that very well for the full year 2012 actual vs normal
Here is the data http://www.komokaweather.com/weather/re ... mmary.html
Paul

I got that bit.

The bit I don't understand is how your location relates to "For all the reputation of UK and rain".

You are in Ontario, right?

Yes I am in Ontario, and my initial comment was to this thread subject and that I was surprised that the total rain posted here was not as much what I had expected. I think in much of the world Canada is known for its cold weather, and here in Canada the UK is known, or rumoured, for a lot of rain. I was just making additional comment about the rain total at my station for 2012 (as we have been in somewhat of a drought) but this was off-subject, so sorry for that.

Paul

PaulMy wrote:I think in much of the world Canada is known for its cold weather, and here in Canada the UK is known, or rumoured, for a lot of rain.

PMFJI. It's more likely that the UK suffers / enjoys frequent rainfall rather than lots of it but amounts vary enormously across the UK. The wettest parts are always in the west with the NW of Scotland probably the wettest but the Lake District in NW England accrues substantial amounts.

In comparison London and the SE of England is drier than many European capitals. This is taken from WikiPedia... Despite its reputation as being a rainy city, London receives less precipitation in a year than Rome at 834 mm (32.8 in), or Bordeaux at 923 mm (36.3 in)

I bet that surprised you!

Hi,
Just catching up...

ANNUAL TOTAL for North Ayrshire was 1215.5mm

This is from a REMEX 3 inch diameter gauge. In the past 4 months I have been doing a comparison between this and a genuine 5 inch Met Office gauge. The differences are quite small but it all adds up. After some careful observations of conditions during rainy spells I now attribute this to wind influence on the REMEX.

So this amount is a few percent less than the real amount.

As cylinder gauges are generally more accurate (when correctly placed!) than tipping gauges but less convenient for most, are there any others still using cylinders? and I was really interested to read about a US group called CoCoRaHS who use manual cylinders and a set of standard procedures. Anyone from the States on the forum who is involved with this program?

Cheers,
Bill.

I am using a cylinder gauge to check on (and correct) the values reported by my Fyne Offset rayne gauge.

The 'correcting' bit in the above sentence applies on a regular basis. The differences are sometimes quite huge and it all adds up like no tomorrow.

Hi peterh,

After using a tipping gauge on my old Oregan 918 stations for 10 years+ I just shrugged of the inaccuracies because it worked well enough. Since getting interested in internet weather sites (this and other forums for example) after buying a "Gadget wireless weather forecaster" I began to pay a bit more attention.

The rain gauge was absolute rubbish, I mean really really cr*p!, entirely spurious rain fall on dry days then astronomical readings on others then no readings when it was tipping down!

So I bought a REMEX gauge and that was great improvement, a bit more effort but simple and reliable. I've been using that for a couple of years now and last year I was lucky enough to get a 5 in gauge from a hydrological unit at a local university. What a difference!, this revealed the problems I mentioned and being interested in rainfall as a topic in it's own right I don't know if I'd really trust a tipping bucket gauge now for absolute accuracy, no matter what the manufacturers claim.

cheers,
Bill.