• Rain gauges let you keep track of how much precipitation you're actually getting.summer rain image by Alison Bowden from Fotolia.com
  
  Monitoring local weather and precipitation offers many benefits to farmers, gardeners, outdoorsmen and even the aspiring meteorologist. Keeping track of rainfall lets you know whether you need to water your crops or flowers, when you should plant certain seeds or even if the local fishing hole is going to be high or low. To track and record rainfall, you're going to need a rain gauge, and like any other tool, rain gauges come in a variety of types and functions.
  
  

Standard Gauge

• A basic rain gauge can be as simple as a notched cylinder.cylinder image by Hubert from Fotolia.com
  
  The standard rain gauge is usually made of plastic or glass and can be found in cylinder or square shapes. This gauge is simply a container with graduated markings (notches on the side of the clear container that measure the height of the collected water from the bottom) that either can contain an overflow or must be dumped manually after each rainfall. This type of rain gauge is typically inexpensive and is accurate only if checked almost daily and emptied after each rainfall.
  
  

Tipping Bucket Gauge

• The tipping bucket gauge, or "tip" gauge, uses a predetermined amount of water to cause the collection bucket to tip over, emptying the collection chamber. Once the bucket tips, the gauge records the tip and adds it to any previous tips, giving you a total, measured amount of collected rain. This type of gauge is often used with digital rain gauges, or it can be set up to manually ring a bell to allow a rain watcher to record the tips by ear.
  
  

Weight Gauge

• A weighing, or "scale," rain gauge uses the weight of the water to determine the amount of collected rainfall. This collects precipitation (including snow and hail) and then measures the weight of the full collection chamber against the weight of the empty chamber to find the weight of precipitation received. It calculates the weight into measurable inches or centimeters to provide an accurate reading. Mostly used in digital gauges, the weighing rain gauge can be expensive and must be calibrated correctly.
  
  

Laser Gauge

• An optical gauge, or "laser" gauge, is a rain collection device that causes collected rain to form consistently sized water droplets that fall into the path of a laser or beam of light. When the laser connection is broken, the digital meter adds the drop to the total and calculates how much rainfall is being received. Since each drop represents a consistently measurable amount of water, these gauges are very accurate and can be expensive.