What rain gauge do you use?

I can see that many keep records using a rain gauge.
Would you mind to let me know the model, and what best works for you technically seen. Also the cost to buy. I found examples between £5k and £250.
Thanks in advance.

 

Thanks a lot Dove

 

This one, but they were a lot cheaper two years ago. The black holder bit sits on the end of a cane.
I paid £3.11 each, and got two because I thought the black "holder" part might be flimsy, but I needn't have worried - which @simone_in_wiltshire will tell me I should have known because it's made in Germany

 

What an interesting thing to do. I've always thought the weather was mundane and boring but this sounds interesting. I feel like getting one (as long as it doesn't overflow with all the rain we get here )

 

Mines a 12yr old version what @Dovefromabove shows, I think it cost less than a fiver back then.
Mine is a bit cloudy now but I can still see the numbers.

I'm loathed to buy another one just in case it gives different measurements to this one.

My measurements, in temp or rainfall, are never intended to be official but as I've kept some kind of haphazard record over the years they do mean something to me as they have always been taken in the same place, so highs and lows, but as I say not official to anyone but me as they give me a good comparison..

 

I use a jam jar with a simple scale written on the side with a permanent market. It sits in a garden wine glass holder. Cheap and cheerful

 

If you are only after your own comparisons I can see that working.

 

@Michael Hewett This was my thought too. In Autum, Dove couldn’t believe that the roof of my 4x6ft greenhouse (3sqm) had collected over night 190l water and our garden wasn’t flooded. Seeing how small the gauges are, I see myself daily going out.
But do it, because records like from JennyJB are the accurate ones. Where I live, the next stations are 30 min by car and have completely different weather than we have.

@JennyJB Do you go out daily and take the water out? I thought about weekly.

I also thought about summer when water evaporates inside hours.

 

I just found this page
How we measure rainfall

 

Its a daily process, for me, I just look at it in the mornings as I walk buy, and them empty it.
You can probably get remote ones these days, I'm not sure.

I've seen all that from the met office but I'm not that technical, I just do it out of interest.

 

I never get any in my wheelbarrow, I store it upright.

 

@shiney I used the water tanks from the greenhouse but I lost overview since Autumn how many times it was 75l.
I also have a bucket and use a finger to measure but since Autumn half of my arm gets wet.

 

I empty it every day that it's rained, if I'm at home. Actually my readings are slightly skewed because I check in the morning so overnight rain is counted as the previous day - not always the same time either. I'm not so obsessed as to go out at midnight! Very rarely I empty it more than once in a day if I think it's in danger of overflowing. If I've been away I make my best guess as to which day(s) the rain fell on, based on forecasts etc. (I'm rarely away for more than a few days).

There will be some evaporation, so if it rains during the day then looks like turning hot, I might go out and empty it. Sometimes in summer it rains a bit but there's nothing measurable in the gauge. I don't bother about that because it's generally not been enough to do more than dampen the surface, so it might as well be zero as far as the garden is concerned.

It probably all sounds very un-scientific. I did an Open University course once that had a practical involving making rain gauges, and most of the marks were for understanding causes of uncertainties, inaccuracies etc, so I'm well aware of them. But, my simple approach gives me the information I want to compare with previous years and with the official long-term averages, and with what other people on here measure if they want to share, without a big investment of money or time.