NWS looking for citizen rainfall observers during annual March Madness campaign
Submitted by paula on Tue, 02/22/2022 - 3:01pm
Rain and snowfall amounts are monitored closely around Lake Tahoe and the rest of Nevada and California. The results play a critical role in determining several things, including drought monitoring for agricultural interest, researching a changing climate, or better forecasting of the severity of fire season. Since the staff of different agencies cannot be everywhere across the county, they rely on volunteers.
The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) helps to fill in these critical rain and snowfall gaps by leveraging the public.
The National Weather Service (NWS) is looking for more rainfall observers in communities across the country during CoCoRaHS March Madness, and the Reno/Tahoe area is no different. A high-density network of surface observations is highly reliable to get the best picture possible.
Every year, the NWS Reno participates in a combined effort (and a friendly state vs. state competition) to recruit as many observers as possible during CoCoRaHS March Madness.
Volunteers may obtain an official 4-inch rain gauge through the CoCoRaHS website www.cocorahs.org for about $30 plus shipping. Instructions are available on how to easily make a snow-board out of plywood. Volunteers are required to take a short online training module and then can begin using the
CoCoRaHS website or mobile app to submit their daily reports (preferably around 7:00 a.m. Local Time).
Observations are immediately available on maps and reports for the public to view. The process takes less than five minutes a day, but the impact to the community is tenfold: By providing high quality, accurate measurements, the observers are able to supplement existing networks and provide useful results to the NWS, other scientists, resource managers, decision-makers, and many other users.
How does one become a CoCoRaHS observer? Go to the CoCoRaHS website (HERE) and click on the “Join CoCoRaHS” emblem on the upper right side of the main website. After registering, take the simple online training, order your 4-inch rain gauge, make a snow-board (if necessary) and start reporting.