Kevin Erb, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension
How heavy was the rainfall overnight? How much snow fell during the latest snowstorm? How bad is the drought this year? Join over 500 fellow volunteers across Wisconsin who report precipitation online to ensure measurements of snow, rain and hail are available for your area.
The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network or CoCoRaHS is recruiting volunteer weather observers to help the National Weather Service and others determine the impact and severity of each storm.
Everyone can participate – young, old, and in-between. The only requirements are an enthusiasm for watching and reporting weather conditions and a desire to learn more about how weather can impact our lives.
All you need to do is sign-up, attend an online training, and then you are ready to start measuring weather in your own backyard. Volunteers can measure:
- snow using a yardstick or homemade snowboard
- rainfall and the water content of snow using a 4” diameter rain gauge
- hail using a ruler or homemade hail pad
- ice accretion using a ruler
You’ll be amazed at what you learn as you become more aware of the variable weather that impacts you, your neighbors, your state and our entire country. Plus, you’ll help ground truth weather events, providing valuable information for improving weather forecasting models. The data you provide will help shape forecasts of river stages and flood levels on local rivers and can help inform National Weather Service thunderstorm or flash flood warnings just to name a few examples.
Sunday, March 1, 2020 marked the beginning of CoCoRaHS March Madness campaign. The campaign is a nationwide competition between states to see who can recruit the most volunteer weather observers. Last year, Wisconsin ranked sixth out of all 50 states and this year we are aiming to increase our ranking and beat our neighbors in the Gopher State!
Join your fellow Wisconsinites who report rainfall, snow fall and weather facts. Register today and help us beat Minnesota in this year’s CoCoRaHS March Madness.