Undercatch of tipping-bucket gauges in high rain rate events

Abstract. We have investigated differences in rainfall accumulations for seven high rain rate events from three gauges: a Geonor T-200B vibrating-wire weighing gauge and two MetOne tipping-bucket gauges. The Geonor gauge and one tipping-bucket gauge are located in a pit so that their collection orifices are at ground level. Thus their measured rainfall accumulations are minimally affected by wind speed. The other tipping-bucket gauge is located 105 m from the pit and is surrounded by an Alter-type slatted wind screen. Its collection orifice is positioned 1 m above ground level.

The results from the seven events show that the tipping-bucket gauges noticeably underestimated storm event rainfall totals relative to the weighing-bucket gauge when 1-min rain rates exceeded about 50 mm/h (2 in/h). In addition, we conclude that observable wind induced undercatch by the aboveground tipping bucket gauge begins when the wind speed at a height of 2 m exceeds around 5 m/s. In this paper we show and discuss time series of rain rates, differences in rain rates, and wind speeds for two of the seven events in an attempt to account for the lower storm totals from the two tipping bucket gauges relative to the weighing-bucket gauge.