Question: Why is rain measured in 10ths of an inch? I have several rulers, tape measures and yardsticks, all of which are divided in increments of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, etc. If you're going to use 10ths, why not use the metric system? Is there something meteorologists know that we don't, or am I all wet?

        Answer: Unless there is a monsoon we didn't know about in Anderson Township, the Stupid Desk assumes this reader is no more moist than the rest of us. We were perfectly stumped.

        Sam McNeil, National Weather Service meteorologist and program manager, Wilmington, wasn't.

        What it all boils down to, he says, is an effort by the weather experts to please all of the people all of the time.

        “The National Weather Service,” he says, “is part of an international meteorological society, where it's been agreed upon by countries throughout world to look at meteorology ... in some form of standard.”

        Because most of the rest of the world measures rain and snow and hail in metric terms, based on 10s; and because the United States insists on its old system of inches, feet and yards, the weather service came up with a system that uses inches, but divides them into hundredths.

        It allows for an easier conversion when statistics are forwarded “across the world.

        “Two one-hundredths of an inch is also reported as 5/10 of a millimeter,” he said.

        If your mathematics juices are flowing, 1 inch converts to 25.4 millimeters; 1 millimeter is .03937 inch.

        If you have a question, send it to Ask a Stupid Question, Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati OH 45202; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: mpulfer@enquirer.com

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