Cumulus Support

That is exactly why I have a manual cylinder gauge.

I am relieved to find out I am not alone!

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?

Jim (user monkey38) in Melita Manitoba, Canada is involved with CoCoRaHS http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ListDa ... ports.aspx but the programs has not yet been extended to Ontario, Canada

Paul

I also use a manual rain gauge which I used before I started using Cumulus and I find the manual readings are better than the tipping bucket gauge especially with heavy rain as the tipping bucket gauge often under records.

Also the resolution of the tipping bucket gauge of 0.5mm does not match the 0.1mm resolution of my manual gauge and so the records of recent would be inconsistent of the past if I changed the gauge I used for my rain records to the tipping bucket type.

I too have a vintage funnel gauge which, being honest, do not consistently measure each day but check whenever there is a decent amount of rain. I also have a clear perspex cylinder type which I do check daily, and if it's close to the VP2, I tend to accept the VP2.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the information. The CoCoRaHS site is really well done. It would be nice to see something like that over here for luddites like me who prefer ye olde fashioned way

Reading one of your earlier posts on this thread raises a good point about the perception of how wet the UK is.

Some bits are MUCH wetter than others. For example the Lake District in northern England and the Nevis ranges in western Scotland can get several metres worth but the south east of England, as has been pointed out, actually gets relatively little. The issue is that due to our latitude, the influence of the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Drift and how this interacts with the Polar Front leads to our "temperate" climate. What this boils down to is that, especially on the west coast, the rain pretty much falls all year round so believe me it can sometimes begin to feel like its horrible and damp and wet all the bl**dy time! During the winter months in the west of Scotland it can rain week after week after week...

It does keep the place nice and green though so on the few sunny days we do get it's just a beautiful place to be!

Cheers,

Bill.

Here's mine: I only set up the weather station in January 2012, but the values recorded show some interesting variation from "Crewe" norms over the years. December 2012 was a real soggy one...
Dep. Max Days of Rain
From Obs. >=
YR MO Total Norm Day Date 0.2 2.0 20.0
---------------------------------------------
12 1 32.0 -13.0 12.4 20 8 5 0
12 2 20.0 -39.3 7.3 5 13 3 0
12 3 17.6 -20.5 5.7 4 6 4 0
12 4 84.2 42.4 17.6 29 21 13 0
12 5 46.6 15.8 12.4 15 12 7 0
12 6 131.5 108.2 18.1 8 21 16 0
12 7 115.5 38.8 30.0 6 18 13 1
12 8 51.6 -14.2 11.4 15 17 8 0
12 9 111.9 57.9 46.1 24 16 12 2
12 10 63.9 12.9 16.0 11 17 8 0
12 11 66.2 11.2 14.5 21 13 8 0
12 12 278.2 237.1 28.0 22 25 21 5
---------------------------------------------
1019.2 437.3 46.1 Sep 187 118 8

BillW wrote:...
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.

Today I ordered a Stratus rain gauge from RainmanWeather. I ordered the one that comes with the metric tube and I added on a spare measurement tube using imperial numbers. Once I get it figured out, I plan to sign up for CoCoRaHS. Here is the metric gauge and the spare imperial tube (they do not carry metric tubes separately which is why I ordered a metric gauge and a spare imperial tube):

http://www.rainmanweather.com/site/prod ... Snow-Gauge
http://www.rainmanweather.com/site/prod ... Snow-Gauge

It would be awesome if Cumulus had a field to enter manual rain gauge totals and to have access to this data in graphs, daily/monthly/yearly records, and such. Perhaps as a Weather Diary entry for measurement along with the date and time the measurement was made.

Buford T. Justice wrote:

BillW wrote:...
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.

Today I ordered a Stratus rain gauge from RainmanWeather. I ordered the one that comes with the metric tube and I added on a spare measurement tube using imperial numbers. Once I get it figured out, I plan to sign up for CoCoRaHS. Here is the metric gauge and the spare imperial tube (they do not carry metric tubes separately which is why I ordered a metric gauge and a spare imperial tube):

http://www.rainmanweather.com/site/prod ... Snow-Gauge
http://www.rainmanweather.com/site/prod ... Snow-Gauge

It would be awesome if Cumulus had a field to enter manual rain gauge totals and to have access to this data in graphs, daily/monthly/yearly records, and such. Perhaps as a Weather Diary entry for measurement along with the date and time the measurement was made.

I'll bring this thread back from the graveyard.

I use the CoCOHRaS tube and have for a year. I usually enter the rainfall in the day field txt for the last entry around 6 or 7 am. This does not always coincide with when the rain actually falls but is the last 24 hour amount measured..

I see on the weatherbug site that my station will report the monthly totals. But not the daily.

When using the Today rain field or Yesterday rain field do these automatically get updated in the dayfield .txt file?