I think you would be much better off with a rain gauge somewhere in your yard since actual rainfall can vary so much in a small area. Last week a friend of mine that lives about 2 miles from me got an inch of rain one afternoon and I got nothing.

Agreed. My office has gotten about 8 inches of rain this year and my house, 3 miles away, has gotten 4 inches in the gage.

Any recommendations on what to buy and where to place it? Any thing I can look at till I get that in place? Thank you.

Most any rain gauge will be close enough for what you're wanting. Heck, I had a tuna can set out in a flower bed until I got tired of the wife complaining about it and bought a nice decorative one. Whatever you use should be placed so that it's not under anything that could deflect the rain from reaching it.

Just ordered one to mount to my porch post. I'll give it a whirl. Thank you.

We just got some good torrential down pour in the morning. It had to be at least 2 inches. A plastic bucket that was left in the yard filled up to almost 5 inches. I am very happy.

My rain gauge is a commercial sized tuna can. I stick my index finger in the water. One knuckle is 1" of rain, two knuckles is 2" of rain.

It rained two knuckles this morning.

shaffer021 Any recommendations on what to buy

Whenever I shop for almost anything I start at Amazon even if I have no thought of buying there. Right now their first page has pictures and descriptions of rain gauges between 25 cents and forty bucks.

But before I bought one I would Google PWS [Personal Weather Station] for my zip code. (Note. Find one and look at their map. There may be one closer that Google does not find.) Some record rain and keep histories and, as in my case, the DMV may have one across the street.

That what I did with Amazon looked at top sellers and reviews. Hoping to get it next week, and try it out!