Why is seemingly the whole country reporting only a trace of rainfall, or even none at all? I had 7.1mm in the 24 hours to 0900 this morning, with 13cm of snow lying.

Ian Bingham,
Inchmarlo, Aberdeenshire.
80m asl.

On Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 9:57:57 AM UTC, wrote:
Why is seemingly the whole country reporting only a trace of rainfall, or even none at all? I had 7.1mm in the 24 hours to 0900 this morning, with 13cm of snow lying.

Ian Bingham,
Inchmarlo, Aberdeenshire.
80m asl.

It's because humans are now largely redundant in the system.

That's progress!

Graham
Penzance

Graham Easterling wrote:

On Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 9:57:57 AM UTC,
wrote:
Why is seemingly the whole country reporting only a trace of
rainfall, or even none at all? I had 7.1mm in the 24 hours to 0900
this morning, with 13cm of snow lying.

Ian Bingham,
Inchmarlo, Aberdeenshire.
80m asl.

It's because humans are now largely redundant in the system.

That's progress!

Graham
Penzance

Even a manual rain gauge is of no use in the sort of conditions we have
here this morning. The funnel fills to the brim with falling snow and
drifting snow then anything further just blows off. There's no 'level'
snow from which to calculate a probable rainfall equivalent. This
morning I simply gave a sensible estimate based on the amount of
precipitation that I observed. It might be an accurate estimate or it
may not but it's the best I can do. The last tip of the AWS bucket was
at 1540z on 27th Feb. Some sunshine that afternoon had caused a little
melting of the snow in the funnel.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.
https://peakdistrictweather.org
Twitter: @TideswellWeathr

In message ,
writes
Why is seemingly the whole country reporting only a trace of rainfall,
or even none at all? I had 7.1mm in the 24 hours to 0900 this morning,
with 13cm of snow lying.

Ian Bingham,
Inchmarlo, Aberdeenshire.
80m asl.

In the weather reports for British locations in my paper this morning,
the weather for Edinburgh for the 28th was given as "flurry". So much
for the red warning! I supposed it's all automated. The AWS records only
a trace, and that must correspond to a description of "flurry".
--
John Hall
"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history
that man can never learn anything from history."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

On Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 10:21:42 AM UTC, Norman Lynagh wrote:
Graham Easterling wrote:

On Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 9:57:57 AM UTC,
wrote:
Why is seemingly the whole country reporting only a trace of
rainfall, or even none at all? I had 7.1mm in the 24 hours to 0900
this morning, with 13cm of snow lying.

Ian Bingham,
Inchmarlo, Aberdeenshire.
80m asl.

It's because humans are now largely redundant in the system.

That's progress!

Graham
Penzance

Even a manual rain gauge is of no use in the sort of conditions we have
here this morning. The funnel fills to the brim with falling snow and
drifting snow then anything further just blows off. There's no 'level'
snow from which to calculate a probable rainfall equivalent. This
morning I simply gave a sensible estimate based on the amount of
precipitation that I observed. It might be an accurate estimate or it
may not but it's the best I can do. The last tip of the AWS bucket was
at 1540z on 27th Feb. Some sunshine that afternoon had caused a little
melting of the snow in the funnel.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.
https://peakdistrictweather.org
Twitter: @TideswellWeathr

Yes, the problem with yesterdays snow was that it can in very heavy bursts, which filled the funnel, then strong 30mph gusts blew it out again. It's not a problem I normally come up against! Even when it does snow here it's normally wet & sticky.

I suppose 1 way is to extract an area of snow, of a typical depth, with the diameter of the rain gauge, and melt it?

Graham
Penzance

On Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 10:21:42 AM UTC, Norman Lynagh wrote:
Graham Easterling wrote:

On Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 9:57:57 AM UTC,
wrote:
Why is seemingly the whole country reporting only a trace of
rainfall, or even none at all? I had 7.1mm in the 24 hours to 0900
this morning, with 13cm of snow lying.

Ian Bingham,
Inchmarlo, Aberdeenshire.
80m asl.

It's because humans are now largely redundant in the system.

That's progress!

Graham
Penzance

Even a manual rain gauge is of no use in the sort of conditions we have
here this morning. The funnel fills to the brim with falling snow and
drifting snow then anything further just blows off. There's no 'level'
snow from which to calculate a probable rainfall equivalent. This
morning I simply gave a sensible estimate based on the amount of
precipitation that I observed. It might be an accurate estimate or it
may not but it's the best I can do. The last tip of the AWS bucket was
at 1540z on 27th Feb. Some sunshine that afternoon had caused a little
melting of the snow in the funnel.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.
https://peakdistrictweather.org
Twitter: @TideswellWeathr
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I had 2.6 mm in my 5 inch funnel when I melted the snow yesterday.
Difficult to judge level snow but it was at least 10 cm in my garden which could equate with about 8 mm. (1 foot snow=1 inch rain in old money).
Today has been hopeless with the gale force wind. Very little in the funnel.
So measuring precipitation in these conditions is really a busted flush.

Len
Wembury, SW Devon

Graham Easterling wrote:

On Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 10:21:42 AM UTC, Norman Lynagh wrote:
Graham Easterling wrote:

On Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 9:57:57 AM UTC,
wrote:
Why is seemingly the whole country reporting only a trace of
rainfall, or even none at all? I had 7.1mm in the 24 hours to
0900 this morning, with 13cm of snow lying.

Ian Bingham,
Inchmarlo, Aberdeenshire.
80m asl.

It's because humans are now largely redundant in the system.

That's progress!

Graham
Penzance

Even a manual rain gauge is of no use in the sort of conditions we
have here this morning. The funnel fills to the brim with falling
snow and drifting snow then anything further just blows off.
There's no 'level' snow from which to calculate a probable rainfall
equivalent. This morning I simply gave a sensible estimate based on
the amount of precipitation that I observed. It might be an
accurate estimate or it may not but it's the best I can do. The
last tip of the AWS bucket was at 1540z on 27th Feb. Some sunshine
that afternoon had caused a little melting of the snow in the
funnel.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.
https://peakdistrictweather.org
Twitter: @TideswellWeathr

Yes, the problem with yesterdays snow was that it can in very heavy
bursts, which filled the funnel, then strong 30mph gusts blew it out
again. It's not a problem I normally come up against! Even when it
does snow here it's normally wet & sticky.

I suppose 1 way is to extract an area of snow, of a typical depth,
with the diameter of the rain gauge, and melt it?

Graham
Penzance

Yes, that's the theory. You plunge the inverted funnel into the snow
and melt what is collected. However, that only works if there is level
snow. Here, we've had dry, powder snow and strong winds. Surfaces
exposed to the wind are blown almost clear while shelterd spots have a
large accumulation of snow. Nowhere is there a representative 'level
depth'. I think a 'sensible estimate' is the best solution.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.
https://peakdistrictweather.org
Twitter: @TideswellWeathr

wrote:

On Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 10:21:42 AM UTC, Norman Lynagh wrote:
Graham Easterling wrote:

On Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 9:57:57 AM UTC,
wrote:
Why is seemingly the whole country reporting only a trace of
rainfall, or even none at all? I had 7.1mm in the 24 hours to
0900 this morning, with 13cm of snow lying.

Ian Bingham,
Inchmarlo, Aberdeenshire.
80m asl.

It's because humans are now largely redundant in the system.

That's progress!

Graham
Penzance

Even a manual rain gauge is of no use in the sort of conditions we
have here this morning. The funnel fills to the brim with falling
snow and drifting snow then anything further just blows off.
There's no 'level' snow from which to calculate a probable rainfall
equivalent. This morning I simply gave a sensible estimate based on
the amount of precipitation that I observed. It might be an
accurate estimate or it may not but it's the best I can do. The
last tip of the AWS bucket was at 1540z on 27th Feb. Some sunshine
that afternoon had caused a little melting of the snow in the
funnel.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.
https://peakdistrictweather.org
Twitter: @TideswellWeathr
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I had 2.6 mm in my 5 inch funnel when I melted the snow yesterday.
Difficult to judge level snow but it was at least 10 cm in my garden
which could equate with about 8 mm. (1 foot snow=1 inch rain in old
money). Today has been hopeless with the gale force wind. Very
little in the funnel. So measuring precipitation in these conditions
is really a busted flush.

Len
Wembury, SW Devon

I agree. In these conditions, the best you can do is give a sensible
estimate.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.
https://peakdistrictweather.org
Twitter: @TideswellWeathr