tipping-bucket rain gage

tipping-bucket rain gage

[′tip·iŋ ‚bək·ət ′rān ‚gāj] (engineering) A type of recording rain gage; the precipitation collected by the receiver empties into one side of a chamber which is partitioned transversely at its center and is balanced bistably upon a horizontal axis; when a predetermined amount of water has been collected, the chamber tips, spilling out the water and placing the other half of the chamber under the receiver; each tip of the bucket is recorded on a chronograph, and the record obtained indicates the amount and rate of rainfall.