Might be an odd suggestion, but you can use a common mug to record rainfall. (one which has an equal circumference top and bottom), or better still, a cheapo plastic rain gauge that you can just stick in the ground, which you can get in most hardware/garden shops.
The best cheap gauge for excellent accuracy is to buy a plastic funnel close to standard diameter (13cm) (in Poundland or equivalent). Place the funnel tightly through the hole of an upturned flowerpot and then stand the whole over a container. (Anything that will fit under the flower pot, not fall over and hold a decent amount of rainwater). Pre-weigh the container on digital kitchen scales to the nearest gram. Then after rainfall re weigh the container on the scales and subtract the tared weight. Then at STP 1g of water = 1ml of water. (Much more accurate than measuring depths with a rule). Then it is just simple maths that you can do on a spreadsheet then forever after just enter the weight of water.
mm of rain = wt of water in g (ml)/area of funnel in sq cm, multiplied by 10.
e.g in this case with say 50g of rain, [50/ pi * 6.5²] *10 = 3.8 mm
The x 10 is to get cm to mm. Once you've entered the formula in the spreadsheet you won't have to do it again.
This produces results close to a standard Snowden rain gauge if placed in a decent location with much higher resolution than any eyeballing method, including the Snowden glass tube.
Edited by user
23 July 2022 21:53:12
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