Education & Involvement
Real-Time Rain Gauge Network
The City's rain gauge network can be accessed by visiting MISSION Communications and entering:
Username: springfield
Password: rain
Site Navigation Tips: Once you are logged in to the webpage, go to the folders on the left-hand side of the webpage. Open Data, then Rainfall. Under the Rainfall folder, view the Table to see the most recent data for all the gauges. Click on a particular gauge to see historic data. To see daily totals, click on Calendar under the Rainfall folder.
Rain Gauge Network Facts
- Number of gauges: 20
- Initial Cost: $36,000 ($20,000 from a grant obtained by the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks and $8,000 each from the Storm Water Services and Sanitary Services Divisions of Public Works)
- Ongoing Cost: $6,252 annual service fee shared by Storm Water Services and Sanitary Services.
- Gauge type: The guages are tipping bucket style gauges with a solar-powered transmitter that utilizes the digital control channel of the cellular communications network to transmit the data to a webpage in 15-minute increments when it has rained at least 0.01" in that 15-minute period. The data transmission is near real-time, displaying on the webpage with an approximate 3-5 minute delay. The gauges report in once/day when no rainfall has occurred.
Potential Uses
- Establishing long-term rainfall data for statistical analysis
- Evaluating flooding from individual storm events
- Evaluating Infiltration/Inflow and sanitary sewer overflows
- Potentially improving flood warning system response time in the urban area
- Potentially issuing flood warnings for specific watersheds and streams
- Public education/outreach tool at schools with gauges and for the general public
