Mild And Wild

I like to observe what is going on around me and use the format of this blog to relay what I observe. I also belong to the CoCoRahs network. CoCoRahs stands for Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. That is a lot of words that is basically a group of people who all use a specific calibrated rain gauge and strive to check it each day at the same time for accurate measurement.

Those who are really into the Citizen Science part of the network track storms, snow depths, size of hail, soil moisture and evapotranspiration (the amount of moisture that evaporates from the ground). I am one that simply checks the rain gauge each morning at 7am and uses my handy-dandy phone app for CoCoRahs to plug in the rain totals each day. Once and a while when we are having a significant storm event, or I have to melt snow to determine how much moisture we did receive, I do a little more of the in-depth reports.

The program originally started as the Colorado Collaborative Rain and Hail Study at the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University after a flood event in Fort Collins. As stated on the CoCoRahs website:

CoCoRaHS officially began on June 17, 1998.  With a few observers along Colorado’s Front Range, we had no idea that the network would become what it is today, with over 20,000 active observers in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Bahamas. A truly remarkable effort by all of you.  Please join us as we celebrate more than twenty years.  Here’s to many more on the horizon.

I appreciate the dedication to this program by not just the volunteers who record in the daily report of rain or no rain. But the staff is willing and able to answer questions quickly with the website. If I am away from the farm and the rain gauge does not get checked at 7am the multi-day report can be filled out when I am back at the next 7am reading time. There is a post-script about the 7am time for reading the gauge, that is simply the time chosen when the program was set up so everyone would be on the same metered time for accuracy. For those who are not inclined to be out traipsing around in the rain, snow, hail or whatever comes at 7am the reporter can choose to report at their own time such as school kids that have a gauge set up outside the classroom.

The best part is seeing what the daily maps look like as the data is collected. Within a mere ten miles of my farm, there are at least three rain reporters that are consistent with their follow through. It is interesting to see the subtle differences between their totals and mine throughout the year (I also use the maps when the measurement of the gauge seems off to me, I can check when my Citizen buddies measured to make sure I am not hallucinating or anything…).

I urge anyone who is interested in becoming a Citizen Scientist, or would just like a way to be able to keep track of the seasons and the amount of rainfall, to watch the training videos on the website for CoCoRahs.

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