As part of the new Urban Critical Zone Network grant, our team is collecting water isotope data from streams to identify source areas. An important source to characterize is rainwater, but you need a local meteoric water line (the relationship between the oxygen and hydrogen isotopes for your area). “Local” turns out to be in my backyard where I just set up a rain sampler!
First, tape a funnel to a 1 liter bottle and put it somewhere steady (surrounded by bricks in my set up). Add a ping pong ball so that the water doesn’t evaporate before you collect your sample. Then wait for a rain event to dump water into your bottle! Claire Welty, who gave me the design, tells me this will be a 5 year sampling project. My husband said when he goes on vacation, I can stay home and collect my rain samples.