Pat, Could that mean God intended metric? If snow and water is 10 to 1, obviously then 10 millimetres to 1 centimetre must have a deeper meaning!
Norm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pat Naughtin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 21:09 Subject: [USMA:26134] Re: Ireland, but on topic Dear All, Measuring rainfall in millimetres has the advantage that a millimetre of rain falling on a square metre constitutes one litre of water: 1 m x 1 m x 0.001 m = 0.001 cubic metres = 1 litre If I build a shed 5 metres by 10 metres, I know that its roof area is 50 square metres, and I know that for every millimetre of rain that falls I can collect 50 litres of water in a rainwater tank. I also know that here in Geelong with an average annual rainfall of 550 millimetres, I can collect about 27 500 litres (550 mm x 50 square metres = 27 500 litres) of water from this roof each year. I know very little about snow � we don't have snow in Geelong � but I believe from others that snow turns to water at a ratio of about 10 to 1, that is that 20 millimetres of snow is roughly equivalent to 2 millimetres of water. So back to the roof on my theoretical shed. If 20 millimetres of snow falls on the roof, this is equivalent to 2 millimetres of rainfall, so 100 litres of water will eventually end up in my collecting tank. Maybe meteorologists simply measure rain in millimetres and snow in centimetres as a simple rule of thumb to make the measures approximately equivalent in terms of litres of water. Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online newsletter, 'Metrication matters'. You can subscribe by sending an email containing the words subscribe Metrication matters to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- on 2003-06-19 00.17, Terry Simpson at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> Paul Trusten wrote: >>> Why not centimeters of rainfall?: >> Norman & Nancy Werling wrote: >> I think one wants millimetres of rainfall and centimetres of snowfall. >> Canada does it that way and I thought that was the normal way of stating >> these measures. > > Ireland and the UK officially measure rain in mm. The UK officially measures > snow in cm (mm may also be used) and I am sure that Ireland is the same. > Unofficially inches are still in use by the public just as Fahrenheit > persists. Government web authors should certainly respond positively to > requests for metric units. > > www.met.ie/climate/rainfall.asp > > www.metoffice.com/construction/pastdata2.html#rands > > >
