Intensity
Precipitation is measured using a rain gauge. When classified according to the rate of precipitation, rain can be divided into categories. Very light rain describes rainfall with a precipitation rate of less than 0.25 millimetres (0.0098 in) per hour. Light rain describes rainfall which falls at a rate of between 0.25 millimetres (0.0098 in) and 1 millimetre (0.039 in) per hour. Moderate rain describes rainfall with a precipitation rate of between 1 millimetre (0.039 in) and 4 millimetres (0.16 in) per hour. Heavy rain describes rainfall with a precipitation rate of between 4 millimetres (0.16 in) and 16 millimetres (0.63 in) per hour. Very heavy rain terminology can be used when the precipitation rate is between 16 millimetres (0.63 in) and 50 millimetres (2.0 in) per hour. Extreme rain can describe rainfall with precipitation rates exceeding 50 millimetres (2.0 in) per hour.
Snowfall's intensity is determined by visibility. When the visibility is over 1 kilometre (0.62 mi), snow is determined to be light. Moderate snow describes snowfall with visibility restrictions between .5 kilometres (0.31 mi) and 1 kilometre (0.62 mi). Heavy snowfall describes conditions when visibility is restricted below .5 kilometres (0.31 mi).
Read more about this topic: Precipitation Types
Famous quotes containing the word intensity:
“The bourgeois treasures nothing more highly than the self.... And so at the cost of intensity he achieves his own preservation and security. His harvest is a quiet mind which he prefers to being possessed by God, as he prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to that deathly inner consuming fire.”
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)
“Consider the difference between looking and staring. A look is voluntary; it is also mobile, rising and falling in intensity as its foci of interest are taken up and then exhausted. A stare has, essentially, the character of a compulsion; it is steady, unmodulated, “fixed.””
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.”
—Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876)