Rain gauge

A rain gauge (also known as an udometer, pluviometer, or an ombrometer) is an instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather and measure the amount of liquid precipitation over a set period of time.

The first known rainfall records were kept by the Ancient Greeks, about 500 B.C.About 400 B.C. people in India also began to record rainfall. The readings were correlated against expected growth, and used as a basis for land taxes. In the Arthashastra, used for example in Magadha, precise standards were set as to grain production. Each of the state storehouses were equipped with a rain gauge to classify land for taxation purposes.

In 1441, the Cheugugi was invented during the reign of King Sejong the Great of the Joseon Dynasty in Korea as the first standardized rain gauge. In 1662, Christopher Wren created the first tipping-bucket rain gauge in Britain in collaboration with Robert Hooke. Hooke also designed a manual gauge with a funnel that made measurements throughout 1695.

It was Richard Towneley who was the first to make systematic rainfall measurements over a period of 15 years from 1677 to 1694, publishing his records in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Towneley called for more measurements elsewhere in the country to compare the rainfall in different regions, although only William Derham appears to have taken up Towneley's challenge. They jointly published the rainfall measurements for Towneley Park and Upminster in Essex for the years 1697 to 1704.

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