Can rain be detected with a Citizen seismic station?

 

Rain creates small shock waves when it hits the ground, but can these be strong enough to be detected by a Citizen Seismic Station? This article explains it.

 

[ Thursday 6 November 2025 ] Reading time: 14 minutes

It might seem that a single drop of water is impossible for a seismic station to detect, let alone a citizen station, which is much more limited in its measurement capabilities than professional ones.

Perhaps a single drop cannot be detected, but when an intense rainfall event occurs, it can undoubtedly be detected, even with a citizen seismic station.

The waves it generates often cause variations in measurements at low frequencies.

The graph accompanying this article corresponds to an event that occurred in the city of Girona on November 6, 2025, between 9:00 and 10:30 a.m. (local time). The strongest peaks correspond to the large number of thunderclaps that occurred during the episode.

Another graph that illustrates these cases is the following:

This other intense rainfall event occurred on September 13, 2025, at approximately 7:00 a.m. (local time), also in the city of Girona. The data was filtered between 0.1 and 0.3 Hz, which helped to highlight the shock waves visible in the last green line.

Interestingly, the end of the last brown line and the beginning of the blue line correspond to an event captured by the same Citizen seismic station: a magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Kamchatka.

The sensor must be very sensitive. These events were captured with a geophone calibrated to 4.5 Hz and with a sensitivity of 200 V/m/s.

 

The rainfall data (44.3 mm) can be consulted on the official website of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia: https://www.meteo.cat/observacions/xema/dades?codi=XJ&dia=2025-11-06T00:00Z

Datos de la estación meteorológica de Girona

Average temperature	13.6 °C
Maximum temperature	18.0 °C	7:48 TU
Minimum temperature	10.4 °C	23:45 TU
Average relative humidity	97%
Accumulated precipitation	44.3 mm
Maximum wind gust (10 m)	41.0 km/h - 304º	8:34 TU
Average atmospheric pressure	1009.4 hPa
Global solar irradiance	3.7 MJ/m2

 

 

Period data

Period TU	TM °C	TX °C	TN °C	HRM %	PPT mm	VVM (10 m) km/h	DVM (10 m) degrees	VVX (10 m) km/h	PM hPa	RS W/m2
00:00 - 00:30	16.2	16.2	16.0	97	0.1	5.8	207	16.9	1014.3	0
00:30 - 01:00	15.7	16.1	15.3	99	0.0	2.2	191	6.8	1013.7	0
01:00 - 01:30	15.0	15.3	14.8	100	0.0	1.8	359	7.2	1012.8	0
01:30 - 02:00	14.8	15.1	14.5	100	0.0	3.6	88	9.7	1012.5	0
02:00 - 02:30	14.9	15.1	14.7	100	0.0	3.2	295	12.2	1012.4	0
02:30 - 03:00	14.4	14.8	14.2	100	0.0	1.1	147	3.2	1012.4	0
03:00 - 03:30	14.1	14.3	13.8	100	0.0	0.0	105	1.8	1012.1	0
03:30 - 04:00	13.7	13.9	13.6	100	0.0	0.4	105	2.2	1011.8	0
04:00 - 04:30	13.5	13.6	13.4	100	0.0	1.1	96	3.2	1011.3	0
04:30 - 05:00	13.5	13.6	13.4	100	0.0	1.8	334	4.0	1010.6	0
05:00 - 05:30	13.1	13.4	12.9	100	0.0	1.8	300	5.0	1010.2	0
05:30 - 06:00	13.4	13.7	13.0	100	0.0	1.4	89	5.8	1010.0	0
06:00 - 06:30	13.6	13.8	13.4	100	0.0	1.8	50	5.4	1009.4	1
06:30 - 07:00	13.9	14.8	13.5	100	0.0	2.5	279	10.8	1009.2	30
07:00 - 07:30	16.8	17.6	15.0	99	0.3	9.4	158	23.4	1008.7	61
07:30 - 08:00	17.7	18.0	17.2	93	0.4	13.0	163	29.9	1008.5	52
08:00 - 08:30	17.0	17.7	14.4	98	4.1	13.7	207	40.0	1008.5	7
08:30 - 09:00	12.3	13.8	12.0	100	10.7	9.7	314	41.0	1008.7	12
09:00 - 09:30	12.0	12.1	12.0	100	21.9	7.9	104	23.0	1009.6	3
09:30 - 10:00	12.2	12.3	12.1	100	2.5	4.7	129	12.6	1008.6	5
10:00 - 10:30	12.2	12.3	12.1	100	0.7	4.0	17	13.7	1008.1	5
10:30 - 11:00	12.1	12.1	12.1	100	1.3	8.6	310	20.9	1007.8	5
11:00 - 11:30	12.1	12.2	12.1	100	1.5	4.7	47	15.1	1007.3	8
11:30 - 12:00	12.0	12.1	12.0	100	0.7	11.2	48	31.7	1004.9	31
12:00 - 12:30	12.3	12.7	12.0	100	0.0	8.3	330	22.0	1005.9	58
12:30 - 13:00	13.2	13.9	12.8	98	0.0	8.3	95	16.6	1006.4	221
13:00 - 13:30	14.8	15.2	14.0	92	0.0	5.4	32	15.1	1006.8	478
13:30 - 14:00	15.0	15.3	14.8	88	0.0	5.4	53	11.2	1007.3	293
14:00 - 14:30	15.0	15.5	14.8	87	0.0	4.7	60	11.9	1007.2	210
14:30 - 15:00	15.9	16.1	15.7	83	0.0	5.0	44	12.6	1007.0	288
15:00 - 15:30	15.8	16.2	15.2	82	0.0	4.7	7	13.3	1007.1	183
15:30 - 16:00	14.7	15.2	14.0	87	0.0	4.7	39	11.5	1007.1	73
16:00 - 16:30	13.9	14.0	13.8	91	0.0	3.2	31	13.0	1007.7	10
16:30 - 17:00	13.8	13.8	13.7	93	0.0	3.2	21	8.3	1008.2	1
17:00 - 17:30	13.6	13.7	13.6	94	0.0	2.2	338	6.8	1008.4	0
17:30 - 18:00	13.6	13.6	13.5	95	0.0	4.0	309	9.4	1008.9	0
18:00 - 18:30	13.8	14.0	13.6	91	0.0	3.6	269	11.2	1009.0	0
18:30 - 19:00	13.6	14.0	12.9	88	0.0	5.0	310	11.5	1009.1	0
19:00 - 19:30	12.7	12.9	12.5	91	0.0	2.9	219	8.6	1008.9	0
19:30 - 20:00	12.3	12.6	11.9	94	0.0	2.9	315	6.1	1008.9	0
20:00 - 20:30	11.6	11.9	11.4	98	0.0	4.0	275	8.3	1009.0	0
20:30 - 21:00	11.5	11.5	11.4	98	0.0	1.8	236	7.2	1009.6	0
21:00 - 21:30	11.6	11.7	11.4	99	0.0	2.2	296	5.4	1010.3	0
21:30 - 22:00	11.5	11.6	11.4	100	0.0	2.2	236	5.4	1010.5	0
22:00 - 22:30	11.8	12.2	11.5	100	0.0	2.9	181	6.8	1010.7	0
22:30 - 23:00	11.6	12.0	11.2	100	0.1	1.4	347	4.0	1010.7	0
23:00 - 23:30	10.9	11.2	10.8	100	0.0	0.7	312	2.9	1011.0	0
23:30 - 00:00	10.6	10.8	10.4	100	0.0	1.4	306	4.7	1011.1	0

The data in orange has only passed an automatic quality control. Its final validation is pending.

Here is the record of electrical discharges that can be consulted on the official website: https://www.meteo.cat/observacions/llamps?dia=2025-11-06

In summary, yes, it is possible to capture rain, especially torrential rain, with a Citizen seismic station, and if you want to see what seismograms would look like with a professional station, here's an illustrated post.: https://x.com/JDiazCusi/status/1977705305338200449

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