Tuesday, July 17, 2012

We're a Weather Station!

I was reading a post on the 7MSN blog the other day about how Carson is recording her rainfall for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS).  I noticed that she was using the exact same rain gauge that we use.  I have always been fascinated with weather and I have been recording our rainfall every year since we moved up here.  I enter the rainfall on a spreadsheet, recording the annual rainfall for a year running July through June.




  I also keep a log of the years to compare.  I have the year with the highest rainfall, the year with the lowest, and the most recent.


So, I was hugely interested in Carson's post and wasted no time in going to the CoCoRaHS website.  I signed up to participate as a volunteer observer which requires that I enter our rainfall on the website everyday.   They track drought conditions so my many entries of 0.00 are important.  The website states that the data is used by the following: 
 CoCoRaHS is used by a wide variety of organizations and individuals.  The National Weather Service, other meteorologists, hydrologists, emergency managers, city utilities (water supply, water conservation, storm water), insurance adjusters, USDA, engineers, mosquito control, ranchers and farmers, outdoor & recreation interests, teachers, students, and neighbors in the community are just some examples of those who visit our Web site and use our data. 

Pretty cool, right?  And we already have the gauge that they require all observers to have.  Brett even had it set up exactly as they liked.  We were so ready!



 I submitted the online application and received a welcome email the same day.  Whoo hoo!  I promptly entered our rainfall for the day (0.00).  I wonder if bugs count for anything....  that seems to be all the rain gauge is catching these days.


There are online tutorials on the website for how to take measurements of rain, hail and snow.  The maps of all the recordings are really interesting.  I tried to find Carson's station but they didn't have a designation for 7 miles south of nowhere (7MSN).  All fifty states in the US plus Canada participate.  How cool is that?

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9 comments:

  1. Kelly (ridegroomfeed)July 17, 2012 at 11:47 PM

    I always wondered what MSN stood for! Thank you for solving that mystery. Makes so much more sense than the MicroSoft Network ranch lol.

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  2. MartineJuly 18, 2012 at 12:22 AM

    Being Irish, I have a fascination for the weather. Without it, we would have little to talk about here.
    But also my father was a weatherman, so as a child I knew the Met station at Shannon airport very well indeed.
    It's interesting to note that they didn't use their udometer to measure bugs ;p

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  3. Lori SkoogJuly 18, 2012 at 4:07 AM

    Very cool.

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  4. ValJuly 18, 2012 at 4:43 AM

    Very cool!

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  5. TexWisGirlJuly 18, 2012 at 6:36 AM

    since you were already tracking it - and with proper gauge equipment, too - how perfect are you for their official program! :)

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  6. cheyenne jonesJuly 18, 2012 at 9:20 AM

    Very cool stuff!......Wonder if an old Wellie would suffice, seeing as we have loads of pairs these days!

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  7. JeniJuly 18, 2012 at 9:37 AM

    Very cool and interesting!!

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  8. IngerJuly 18, 2012 at 11:37 AM

    It must be so interesting to look back and see if things ever were this bad. How great that you already had all you needed.

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  9. TerryJuly 18, 2012 at 5:47 PM

    Way cool, Annette! My Dad was a meteorologist for NASA, so I've always paid attention to the weather.

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Thanks so much for commenting!

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