How Much Water Is There in an Inch of Rain?

Meteorologists, or weather experts, measure rainfall and snowfall in inches. They let falling rain collect in a cylinder, and can tell how many inches have fallen by seeing how far the rain fills up the cylinder.

If your weatherman says that an inch of rain fell on your town, it means that if the ground didn't absorb the rain, it would form a sheet of water an inch deep over every flat surface.

If you could weigh all the water that fell on a single acre of land during a one-inch rainfall, it would weigh 113 tons — that's 226,000 pounds!