My rain gage got it’s first test the other day. We got a nice 1 7/10" of rain in there. The water line is just barely visible under the bottom holder bracket.
And yes BillyBob in Kansas, your rain gage is metric because it measures in tenths of an inch. So take that! You commie pinkos in California!
As a side note: We got a light frost last night. It got down to 31F/-1C at some point last night. Not a hard enough frost to kill the bell pepper plants outright, but it did singe and tip the leaves a bit this morning.
I admit I turn the tenths into quarters in my head as well.
But with snow (our mountains get it) I’ve mostly heard the meteorologist talk about it in feet, or fractions of feet. I have a notion that a foot of snow and an inch of water are about the same amount of water, but no idea if that’s correct.
How much water there is in an inch of snow varies, and often by a noticeable amount. A foot of snow that falls when it’s say 20F/-6C has less water in it than a wet, heavy snow fall at 36F/2C. And the snow that falls at -30F/-34C has a whole lot less than either.
But 1 cubic foot of “average snow”, for those in the general US area, is roughly 1" of water. Close enough for us Cletus’.