A new rain gauge has been installed at the Prefectural University.

On June 14th, a new rain gauge was installed at the prefectural university.

(The Kirby on the left in the photo is included as an indication of size. He's a little smaller than an adult's fist, so even a young elementary school child could hold it.)

A rain gauge is a device that can measure the amount of rainfall over time by placing it on a flat surface with no obstructions around it.

The mechanism of rain gauges is explained in the illustrations in the Encyclopedia of Japan provided by Shogakukan, which are very easy to understand, so I have included a link to them here.

Structure of a tipping bucket type automatic rain gauge | Japan Encyclopedia (japanknowledge.com)

As shown in the image, the deer-scare-avoidance structure inside can measure the amount of rain by recording the number of times it moves like a seesaw, making a "clank... clank..." sound.

Since the seesaw part has to move, it cannot measure very light rain, but it can easily measure rain that is so strong you can hear it even when holding an umbrella.

What it looks like on a rainy day.

There was a bit of wind, but I could see the rain getting into the measuring device. It was installed in a place that didn't interfere with the path of the water that fell on the roof. Perfect.

In the future, we will use the data obtained from this rain gauge to study how much water flows into a rain garden installed on the prefectural university campus.