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Do you really enjoy watching the rain, snow or hail? Well, instead of just standing there in your bathrobe, sipping your coffee and looking out the window, occasionally saying to yourself, “Yup It’s really coming down out there,” you could put your weather observing skills to good use by volunteering for the National Weather Service’s weather observing program! 

The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network (also known as CoCoRaHS) is in need of more weather observers – volunteers who record and report rainfall levels and other important weather information to the NWS to help the organization better map and predict weather conditions. 

“We do have a fairly good number of observers, but the more the better,” Matthew Kidwell, lead meteorologist for the NWS Forecast Office in Eureka, told the Outpost in a recent phone interview.

CoCoRaHS is a national program that was born in 1998 in response to the devastating flash flood that hit Fort Collins, Colo. in 1997. The program was formed with the goal of better mapping and reporting on intense storms. As more volunteers joined throughout the years, the program grew to include general reports on rain, snow, hail and drought conditions throughout the country. 

But why is this necessary? Doesn’t the NWS have its own weather monitoring tools? Well, Kidwell explained that, while the NWS does have its own rain gauges scattered throughout the region, there is not enough funding to place gauges in every little nook and cranny of the county. Since weather patterns can change drastically across locations, it is really helpful to the NWS to have measurements from as many different location points as possible.   

To become an official citizen weather observer, you’ll need to fill out the form at this link. The next step is to order your official CoCoRaHS rain gauge, which you can find here. The rain gauge cost $35 plus shipping, but it is yours to keep forever. Not into spending the money? Depending on where you are located, you may also be eligible to receive a free rain gauge. Kidwell said that the California Department of Water Resources provided a handful of free gauges, but NWS wants to reserve them for folks who live in the more rural areas, where there aren’t already observers. If you’re a deep rural Humboldtian, and you’ll be able to regularly report your observations, you can apply for the free gauge using this form. 

Once you’ve signed up and received your gauge (oh, and by the way, you do need an official gauge, you can’t just use your own) you can check out the training videos on the CoCoRaHS website to learn how to properly use your gauge. After taking measurements, observers will be able to sign into the website to make their reports. Ideally, Kidwell said, measurements should be reported every morning. Of course, sometimes people go out of town or forget, which is fine. There is also a way to make reports for a five day span or longer, Kidwell said. 

If you live in an area that gets snow, then you’re also asked to measure and report snowfall. You don’t need a gauge for that, and you can also find several training videos on how to measure snowfall on the website. Hail reports are also helpful and in some areas reporters are asked to measure the size of the hail balls. Here in California, the size is not much of a concern, Kidwell said, since we don’t really get large hail here. For our area, observers are asked to report when there is hail, how much it is sticking and how much it is covering the ground, etc. 

If becoming a citizen weather observer sounds intriguing, but you’re still not sure about it, Kidwell wanted to mention that there is no long term commitment. CocoRaHS definitely appreciates the long term volunteers, and the longer data is collected from one location the more helpful it is for identifying weather patterns. But many volunteers only help out for as long as they can, which is why the NWS is always in search of more volunteers. So even if you only want to do it for a little while, that can still be very helpful to the CocoRAHS weather mapping efforts! 

“This widespread coverage gives us a much better understanding of the rain patterns, hail and snow patterns,” Kidwell said. “Now we can go back and see the weather conditions on certain days and we can forecast [the weather] better.”