Monthly Rainfall

Hourly data: total rainfall in an hour
Daily data: total rainfall (09:00 to 09:00).

Measuring and recording precipitation that falls as snow

At the times at which precipitation falls as snow an automated rain gauge is prone to getting blocked. Here at Rothamsted, if such an event occurs during a work day, any snow remaining in our standard 5" cylindrical MK2 Met Office manual rain gauge funnel (MK2) at 09:00 is melted and precipitation measured. If snow has exceeded the height of the MK2 then using a spare 5" funnel a core of snow is taken, melted and measured. If any precipitation falls as snow after 09:00 on a Friday and over the weekend then it is not measured until 09:00 on the following Monday. All snow and ice present in any of the automated rain gauge funnels is removed.

When correcting data files for automated rain gauges, including the ECN automated rain gauge, with daily values of precipitation due to snow. We use the measurement from the MK2 taking into account that which has melted and been recorded previously. The corrected value is entered against the 09:00 timestamp for the day on which the measurement of precipitation that fell as snow was made. e.g. snow that fell during the period between 09:00 on a Friday to 09:00 on a Monday and is measured at 09:00 on that Monday. This corrected value is recorded against 09:00 for that Monday.