1) The precipitation amounts have probably been too low here.
2) Today, the precipitation amount is just plain wrong.
Explanation:
For a while, I've noticed that my weather station sometimes doesn't record rain if we receive a small amount. Turns out the pole the station is on has shifted over the years, and it was leaning slightly to one side.
Why does that matter? Inside a weather station like mine, there's a teeter totter for measuring rain. Rain gets funneled down onto the teeter totter and fills up the scoop-shape receptacle on whatever side is up. When the receptacle is full (and therefore heavy), the teeter totter tips. The rain is dumped out, the other side starts to accept water, and (most importantly), the weather station records this as 100th of an inch of rain received.
The pole my weather station is on was leaning along the axis of the teeter totter. This means that one side was disadvantaged because it would have to over-fill before it would tip. Conversely, I assume the other side didn't have to be as full to tip.
So, long story short, when there was a teensy bit of rain, my station may not have recorded it. When there was a lot of rain, the amount is nearly trustworthy (within a couple of hundredths of an inch, I hope).
Lastly, because of all the pounding required to level the pole, my weather station today is reporting that we received a tenth of an inch of rain. This is INCORRECT. My apologies!!
If anyone knows how to "reset" the precipitation record here on Weather Underground, I'd appreciate it.
Thank you for your patience!
