I was in the field lately and it begin to rain, I rushed to get a few more shots before it started to pour, then I got zapped. I got up off the ground a little confused but not enough to know it was time to call it a day.
For the occasional rain that happens I keep plastic shopping bags in my backpack. Rain comes, grab a bag, put it over the gun, put the data collector away, go to the truck and wait it out. Once the rain stops, take a backsight and continue on. My equipment is water proof, but I'm not.
Got Zapped! Oh No! Happy to know you made it!
I realize people up in Washington work in the rain, they must be certifiable.
Personally it is usually way more trouble than it is worth, wet, dirt covered gear, foggy, damp box, etc.
Me too
Murphy has it that it begins to rain with just a few measurements to complete the job, so you stay out to finish and every thing takes the rain........ If starts to rain during a survey I do as Jules J does. Then simply leave a wet or damp instrument in a warm dry place to air and evaporate moisture over night Never leave locked in protective case even on trip back from field.
RADU
We carry two good quality golf umbrellas that can handle wind gusts, as we get horizontal rain here when the cold fronts roll in off the south atlantic, have a guy shield the robot and another guy follow the controller and prism pole.
I find that its the touch screen on the controller that is the real weak spot in the system, as it becomes pretty unresponsive when water is running over it, also the water drops on the prism make it harder to track , and we lose lock often.
Having two extra guys to lug the umbrella's is not efficient, but the main contractor provides them, I just tell them, if you want it staked in the rain, you provide the extra manpower, or we will come back when it stops....
Sometimes we just set up under the rear flap of the 2.0 l TDI VW crewbus like this
The "wet" side of the Cascades has light rain and mist, gloriously cleaned air, and lots of vegetation to chop thru.
the East side has deluges, flash floods, and open vistas, clearer air, the vegetation is in rows, the mons in roads, better for older surveyors.
Don't ask about the Olympics.
Years ago I went out in the field with one of my crews and it started to sprinkle. The party chief said, "So if we draw a square 4 inches on a side on the truck windshield with a dry erase marker, once it gets 10 drops in it we can go in, right?"
I stared at him for a second because I couldn't really believe he had said that. Then I asked him, "Who told you that nonsense?"
"Oh, it was the party chief I worked with when I first started."
I told this guy that I think that party chief was having a bit of fun and proceeded to start the boundary survey.
My first party chief had a two rain drops on a brick rule.
He also taught me about drawing a turtle in the dirt to make it rain.
Once lightning arrived, all work ended, rain or no rain.
When the wind get so high it messes with the backsites and poles on pods, we pack it up.
There is so much more to do on a project or another project apart from breaking out the expensive measuring electronics just to get them wet, I don't do much outside in the rain.
0.02
I lost a data collector last year to getting caught out on a sudden thunderstorm. I saw the rain coming on the radar on my phone, but I was far enough away that I could get the last few shots on that setup. suddenly, a downpour came out of nowhere, and everything got soaked.
I watch the radar much more closely now, and I pack it up before the rain gets there. The potential damage to equipment and personnel is not worth the risk, in my opinion.
Luckily insurance covered the damage, but I won't push my luck again.
Speaking of rain in the NW Conus...
Had a chief draftsman that hailed from logging country in the Washington-Oregon area. A lot of his early experience was on a survey crew. Of course we had to endure his stories of all his great accomplishments. One thing he was always really opinionated about was our desire to box it up when the afternoon thundershowers popped up. The field crews would come in of a rainy afternoon an hour early and he'd have to tell us stories of surveying in the rain. Rain didn't stop him..no siree bob...
We had a couple of vacationing party chiefs and it became necessary for him to take a crew for a week. A typical prairie afternoon squall line came rolling through and at first he attempted to "work through it"....and finally relented that an inch of rain in a thirty minute period was no environment for surveying.
He was soaked. The crew was soaked. The gear was soaked. The boss joked that he "didn't have enough sense to get out of the rain."
His stories of working in the rain were less frequent after that. 😉
Quite. An Oklahoma thundershower is nothing like the drizzle we get here in PNW.
I never criticized the guys for not wanting to work in a lightning storm. Nor in the gusty wind that went along with it and could blow over the setup. I merely assured them - over and over - that the instrument could survive getting wet if it was properly dried afterward. That part was completely foreign to them.
It probably won't survive a lightning strike or contact with pavement.
I got some bad distances one time in the rain trying to locate cracks in a pool deck after the cell phone builders blasted. This was before the days of reflectorless intuments. Luckily the shots where so far off it was ovious but I have always been weary since then.
It's been raining the usual amount, which means quite a lot, this fall in Portland. But for that last two days it 's been rather extraordinary. We had over 2.5 inches yesterday and another inch today. More coming tomorrow. http://www.opb.org/news/article/heavy-rainfall-flooding-causes-closure-of-many-nw-roads/?google_editors_picks=true&apos ;">There has been flooding here and there.
Crews have been out working in it and no problems with the instruments or data collectors. No special precautions at all. Radios did quit when the mics got wet but came back to life when dried.