High precipitable water values, dewpoints in the mid to upper 70s, and an outflow boundary led to the development of some very efficient thunderstorms over my site yesterday afternoon. I received nearly 2 inches in 30 minutes! I’m happy (and somewhat amazed) that my new VP2 rain gage matched my manual 4 inch rain gage. Normally I would expect the tipping bucket to be less due to the intensity. I have another manual gage about 200 feet from the one near the VP2 and it was 0.07 less. That just goes to illustrate that you can even get a rainfall gradient in your own yard (depending on the yard size
). I’m still running my old WMII and it reported a bogus low of -10 F during the storm that obviously must have been caused by the close lightning. No such problems with the wireless VP2. More storms with heavy rain possible again today.
Bill