Citizen Science Program needs your help observing the weather!

Do you ever wonder how much rainfall you received from a recent thunderstorm? If so, an important volunteer weather-observing program needs your help! The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network, or CoCoRaHS, is looking for new volunteers across Florida. The grassroots effort is part of a growing national network of home-based and amateur rain observers that has the goal of providing a high-density precipitation network that will supplement existing observations.

CoCoRaHS came about as a result of a devastating flash flood that hit Fort Collins, Colorado, in July 1997. A local severe thunderstorm dumped over a foot of rain in several hours, yet other portions of the city had only modest rainfall. The ensuing flood caught many by surprise and caused $200 million in damages. CoCoRaHS was born in 1998 with the intent of doing a better job of mapping and reporting intense storms. As more volunteers participated, rain, hail, and snow maps were produced for every storm showing fascinating local patterns that were of great interest to scientists and the public. Recently, drought reporting has also become an important part of the CoCoRaHS program across the nation. In fact, drought observations from CoCoRaHS are now being included in the National Integrated Drought Information System.

Florida joined the CoCoRaHS program in 2007, and by 2016, the CoCoRaHS network had reached all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, and the Bahamas, with well over ten thousand observations being reported each day.  Through CoCoRaHS, thousands of volunteers, young and old, document the size, intensity, duration and patterns of rain, hail, and snow by taking simple measurements in their own backyards.

Volunteers may obtain an official rain gauge through the CoCoRaHS website ( http://www.cocorahs.org ) for about $30 plus shipping. Besides needing an official 4-inch plastic rain gauge, volunteers are required to take a simple training module online and use the CoCoRaHS website to submit their reports. Observations are immediately available on maps and reports for the public to view. The process takes only 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 scientists, resource managers, decision makers, and other users.

“Florida has extremely variable rainfall over short distances, especially during the summer wet season”, said Danny Brouillette, a climatologist with the Florida Climate Center, a unit of Florida State University, and a Florida coordinator for CoCoRaHS. “Data gathered from CoCoRaHS volunteers are very important in better understanding local weather and climate patterns.”

How does one become a CoCoRaHS observer? Go to the CoCoRaHS website above 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 and start reporting!

“We are in need of new observers across the entire state. We would like to emphasize rural locations and areas near the coast,” added Brouillette.

Brouillette can be reached by e-mail at dbrouillette@coaps.fsu.edu or telephone at 850-644-0719.  

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