Rainwater Catchment

 

According to my weather station, we not only have just gotten two-tenths of an inch of rain from our overnight stormfront, we've had almost an inch in the past week and a total to date of thirty inches for the year, which is considerably more than our annual average of fifteen. Maybe someone's adding in snowmelt equivalent? 

In advance of the storm, I emptied out both of my government-allowed 55 gallon rain barrels because a frost and freeze warning had been issued, and winter ice had pretty much destroyed a previous filled container. Well, there wasn't that much ice to speak of, and the barrels had, during the night, basically been refilled, which is remarkable to me. I mean, two tenths of an inch fills a 55 gallon barrel?

It got me wondering what the actual catchment capability might be of the new place we're building up the hill. Seems a little late to be doing this kind of calculation, but the idea of the house being located where it is was in part based on a fundamental principle of catching and storing water up at the top of the slope. So this is certainly a guess based on a formula, but here's what the roof looks like in the plan:

And all of that translates into roughly 4000 sq. ft. of catchment surface. If the actual annual rainfall is in fact closer to 15" than thirty, that amount alone might produce 35,380 gallons! It won't all be going into barrels - in fact, most of it will run through pipes buried peripherally around the foundation and directed either towards the garden topsoil or a pond. Given that this area is drying out at an accelerating rate, it would be truly remarkable to be able to hydrate at least this small portion of the field and kickstart a small water cycling process.