Definition of "rainfall" []

• A shower or fall of rain. (noun)
• The quantity of water, expressed in inches, precipitated as rain, snow, hail, or sleet in a specified area and time interval. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "As the IPCC report made clear, many of the models disagree even on the sign of the change in rainfall over much of the globe, especially for winter projections."
• "(In truth, their annual rainfall is closer to half the amount we received this week alone.)"
• "The most obvious place to get water if not from rainfall is from the Earth's surface -- rivers, streams, and lakes."