[Weather] dual drains -- was Re: conversion help

[claude felizardo]

Herbert E. Plett wrote:
> --- claude felizardo <cafelizardo at usa.net> wrote:
>   
>> What about two sets of drains similar to the condensate drains in an air 
>> conditioning unit?  A relatively small drain into a small pair of 
>> buckets for counting light rain, then an "overflow" drain into a larger 
>> bucket for counting down pours.  Does anyone make anything like that?  
>>     
>
> at first it sounds reasonable, but...
>
> how do you know when the 'large' bucket is almost full because of a pour and
> then rain rate falls back to 'light'?
> in these configurations big and small buckets steal rate mutually and the end
> result is anything but accurate. 
> at least if you build the funnel that doesn't overload one small bucket, the
> worst case scenario will be a delay in measure of pour rate (rate clipping),
> but no error in total water fall.
>
> a rain gauge for both, very heavy rain and very light rain at the same spot, is
> a real challenge and most probably not solvable with a tipping bucket type.
>   

Yeah, you're right.  That's the problem with the buckets, you don't know 
how much is still in the bucket when the rain stops.  So yeah, when the 
rain stops the last few drops that would have tipped the larger bucket 
might have gone to the smaller bucket.

claude