Rain

Rain in last hour

Today’s rain

Yesterday’s rain

Rain in last month

Rain is very important. It provides water for plants to grow and for us to drink. It also cools us down and changes the land around us.

Being able to predict what the rainfall will be at different times of the year is also very important.

• Why would farmers need to know when it is going to rain heavily?

Traditionally rain was measured using a rain gauge and meteorologists would take a measurement at the same time every day. They would record the amount of rain that had fallen in inches or mm rain per day and drawn graphs to show the rainfall pattern over the years. This helped them to predict future rainfall.

These days we often use data loggers to do the measuring for us. That way we can know how much rain falls every hour or even minute without having to go out in the rain!

 

You can easily make your own rain gauge. See this video – but make sure you let the jelly set before you use it! Or better still, find a bottle with a flat bottom.

• Can you think of ways to improve this rain gauge?