Volunteer Weather Observers Needed
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Volunteer Weather Observers Needed to Help Measure Rain, Hail, and Snow
The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) is looking for volunteers to take and report valuable rain, hail, and snow measurements. CoCoRaHS is a grassroots precipitation observing network, which is the combined effort of many different groups and individuals nationwide. While CoCoRaHS is not an official National Weather Service program, NWS employees support the program through education, outreach, and promotion to potential volunteers. The National Weather Service relies on volunteer weather observers that take precipitation readings in their own backyard. While new observers are certainly needed in every county as precipitation is highly variable, the active station map below shows which counties could really use some additional observers by the lack or minimal number of blue dots. The network’s website www.CoCoRaHS.org provides information on how to join, training materials, and access to the precipitation observations.
CoCoRaHS originally began in Colorado in 1998 in response to a devastating flash flood that occurred the year prior. As with many flash floods, a lack of ground truth precipitation observations was apparent. Since that time CoCoRaHS has spread across the country and to other countries as well. A dense and reliable precipitation gauge network can be critical to not only understanding and predicting floods, but snow and drought events as well. In addition to daily precipitation observations, CoCoRaHS observers are also able to report real time occurrences of hail, heavy snow, and flooding in their area which can aid in the issuing and verifying of life saving warnings. The CoCoRaHS network continues to be a valuable asset in monitoring precipitation and climate. CoCoRaHS observations can also be utilized for FEMA declarations as well.
Interested volunteers can join and view the training slide shows/videos on the CoCoRaHS website or attend the online training webinar on Monday March 6th from 7-8pm Eastern or Monday March 20th from 6-7pm Eastern. Information on the CoCoRaHS webinar can be found at the top of the NWS Wilmington, Ohio page or at this link: https://www.weather.gov/media/iln/outreach/CoCoRaHS/cocorahs2023.pdf
