A meteorologist measures all kinds of weather. To find out how much rain has fallen, they use a rain gauge. This is a container like a bottle that is left outside. It fills up with rain water, and the meteorologist then measures how much rain has fallen. You could make a simple rain gauge for your backyard.
	Rainfall is measured in millimetres. It is usually described as light, moderate, or heavy rain, depending on how much has fallen. Zero millimetres of rain a day is no rain. The good news is that on these days, you won't get wet at all!
	Light rain, which is up to 2.5 millimetres of rainfall an hour, isn't very wet. If you were caught in it, you'd only get a small sprinkling. You might not even need a raincoat. If you didn't want to get wet at all, an umbrella would keep you dry.
	Moderate rain measures 2.5 to 7.5 millimetres of rain an hour. This amount of rain would make you wet if you were playing outside, and it would be easy to see. If you weren't wearing a raincoat, you'd get wet quickly. An umbrella would probably keep you dry.
	If more than 7.5 millimetres of rain is falling an hour, meteorologists call it heavy rain. We might say "It's raining cats and dogs". A heavy shower will make you run for cover - fast. You'd get soaking wet, and it wouldn't be much fun. Heavy rain is the kind of weather that ducks like.

	Your rainfall scale could start like this:
	Example:
	Scale:	0 millimetres per day
	Description:	No rain