Thursday, July 12, 2012
Wondering about the rain.
We
had a lot of rain the last few days and last night some really heavy
thunder-storms came through here. It
woke me up and of course scared my oldest dog half to death. The rain came down in bucket-fulls dumping a
considerable amount of rain. The heavy
stuff started about 04:30 and lasted for way over an hour. Therefore, when I did get back to a
semi-sleep, I slept in. That is why I am
a little late writing this blog this morning.
Now, if I had to do some research or post pictures, it would be much
later. This heavy rain made me wonder
just how much extra weight the rain water added to the land. So let me grab my calculator and see what I
can come up with. When I design large
tanks I use the formula that says one gallon of water equals 231 cubic inches;
useful for designing tanks but of no use to answering my question. OK, I think this one will work: one cubic
foot of water equals 62.4245 pounds.
Yep, that is the one I need, so let me see what it looks like when I
plug numbers into it. For every square
foot that has one inch of water on it would weigh 62.4245 divided by 12, or 5.202
pounds per square foot. I have 12 acres
and there are 43,560 square feet per acre, I have approximately 522,720 square
feet. So, for every inch of rain that
fell, I received 2,719,189 pounds of rain and we got at least 1.5 to 2.0
inches, so at 1.5 inches that would be 4,078,784 pounds or almost 2040 tons of
rain just on my place. Now, I would have
never, ever have guessed that much weight has fallen in just a couple of hours,
and I still hear thunder so may get more.
We are already under flash flood warnings. Feel free to check my math, I just hurried
through the figures, but bet I am close.
You all have a great day and don’t get burdened down with tons and tons
of rain, you hear?
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Strange, but I just never thought of the weight of the rain!
ReplyDeleteYou always give me something to think about!
Saw your area on the weather map,,,knew you were getting some heavy stuff. Looks like more coming,,too.
ReplyDeleteHJ, I guess I just wonder about strange things, at least different things. Some things I wonder about I can explain and some I can not. I like the latter, gives me more to think about.
ReplyDeleteTrouble, Yep, going to be wet for awhile. What a difference a year makes. . .
Kristine, that is exactly what I said when I got the final answer.
Texas: land of drought and floods.
ReplyDeleteBack in my firefighter days we sometimes refered to a certain 2.5 inch hose with a straght tip as a "one ton nozzle," as it put out a ton of water per minute. That's about the biggest handline you'd like to use.
The truck and ground based nozzles could put out water fast enough to crush a building with a flat roof.
Glad you mentioned the rain. I am worried about all that has fallen this couple of days.
ReplyDeleteTXCN cable news features about 8 minutes of the regualar Channel 11 News in Houston as well as other Texas cities but today they are featuring some silly things like where to shop when people want to see the weather! Well at least I do.
Have to admit I have never wondered about how much water weight it adds to the land.
No wonder them raindrops beat ya to death when they're ker-plunking you in the head, they're heavy! Don't hurt as much as the solid ones,though.
ReplyDeleteWow, that gives a whole new meaning to "a heavy rainfall". Interesting thought. We get a lot of rain here in Oregon, so I'm surprised we don't tilt the entire United States our way just a bit.
ReplyDeleteSixbears, this is Texas, there is no such thing as a happy medium. And I am familiar with the pressure of those hoses. Another use for fire hose is for soft clamps. Just add air pressure. I have used them in assembly fixtures.
ReplyDeleteMsBelinda, It is heavy and breaks down RV awnings if they are not set correctly, tents, and sometimes roofs, especially in the frozen state as snow.
Jimdabob, actually the frozen solids ones are lighter per the same volume. That is why ice floats on water.
Russ, Good pun, "heavy rainfall". I should have thought of that. You probably do tip it a small amount (grin).
That is our future fuel DD
ReplyDeleteSo Dizzy, now when it's raining hard, instead of saying it's raining buckets, we can say it's raining fire hoses? Don't seem to have the same ring, somehow. I, too, have never thought of how much a few inches would weigh - interesting thought.... Maybe that's why I seem to be heavier in the past week ~ it's rained every day!
ReplyDeleteTed, water is the product of the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen. It is much easier and cheaper to burn hydrogen then to separate the two molecules, but it will be done on future space flights.
ReplyDeleteBaby Sis, It is Friday morning and I still hear thunder. Sure getting weighted down with rain this week. I think the news calls it flooding.