What are rainfall rates?

Rainfall rates tell us how fast rain is falling from the sky to the ground.

Imagine you're filling up a bucket with water, rainfall rate is like how quickly that bucket fills up. If it's drizzling, the bucket fills slowly. But if it’s pouring down, the bucket gets full in no time!

Think of rainfall rates as the speed of a tap. A slow drip is like light rain, maybe just 1 millimeter of water every hour. That's not much more than a few drops falling on your head.

But if the tap is turned all the way on, that’s like a heavy downpour, maybe 20 millimeters of water every hour! That’s enough to fill up a small pool in just one hour!

Rainfall rates help us know how much water is falling from the sky. If we measure it over time, we can see if it's a gentle rain or a stormy downpour, and that helps people plan for things like watering gardens or avoiding floods!