Rain Gauges

Lady's mantle, nature's rain gauge?

I can feel the season shift when the late summer rains begin.  Not just a dusting, or enough to settle the dust, but rain for hours, that even our sandy soils here in central Wisconsin cannot drain away.  Pools form in low spots around poorly graded garages, in the dips and the hollows.

My mother has a rain gauge, which she fairly regularly empties.  She tells me we had 3/4" of an inch a couple days ago, but she didn't empty it and then last night's rain brought it up to 2 1/2".  Why wouldn't she have emptied it when she checked it before?  Suffice to say we got some rain.

Luckily, given my electric plug-in lawn mower (which I really like, except for the cord!), I finished mowing the back lawn on Thursday.  It was a new personal best since my injury, just under an hour.  That is down from over an hour and a half.  I did mention I have a tiny amount of lawn out back? It is measurable progress; I'll take it!

My typical rain gauge is a pot, can, pail, etc. left outdoors.

You can get all cutesy...

(Photo: www.doorknockersandbells.com)

...or so high tech, your rain gauge looks like something NASA would use on Mars.

(Photo: www.hydrolynx.com)

But there are a lot of subtle ways to tell how much rain you received.  Those are the tools of the observant gardener, but don't give you any bragging rights.

So do you use a rain gauge?  Is it decorative, scientific, or does it simply get the job done?