"Dartmoor Will" wrote in message
...
Can 700 mm/h be correct, surely a malfunction due to the tipping bucket
mechanism being overwhelmed?

Well, certainly unlikely to be accurate at such extreme rain rates, but all
it means when you work it out (and for a 0.2mm TBR) is that two successive
tips were recorded about 1 second apart - close to the reality check limit
for a VP2 I suspect. (Though actually now I come to check it, the spec says
the max rain rate is 2438mm/hr - probably a conversion from 96"/hr ). I
wonder if, transiently, the rain was falling into the collector faster than
it could pass through the central hole and hence triggering two tips in very
quick succession. In other words, perhaps at seriously extreme rain rates
the limiting factor becomes the rate at which rain can exit through the
orifice because I'm pretty sure that the buckets can tip a bit more quickly
than every second.

JGD