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:
“We may say that feelings have two kinds of intensity. One is the intensity of the feeling itself, by which loud sounds are distinguished from faint ones, luminous colors from dark ones, highly chromatic colors from almost neutral tints, etc. The other is the intensity of consciousness that lays hold of the feeling, which makes the ticking of a watch actually heard infinitely more vivid than a cannon shot remembered to have been heard a few minutes ago.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“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)
“A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)