National Weather Service looking for volunteer weather observers

Are you a weather geek? Have you spent way too many hours watching the Weather Channel or lurking on weather twitter? You might be a candidate for being a volunteer weather observer for your local National Weather Service office.

The program is called CoCoRaHS. It’s an acronym for the NWS community collaborative rain, hail and snow network. Yes, weather people spend a lot of time coming up with acronyms.

NWS offices around Minnesota are still looking for volunteer weather observers to collect and report rainfall, hail, and snowfall observations. There are some specific areas where the density of weather observers is still thin.

Here’s a look at the overall density of CoCoRaHS observers across Minnesota.

The NWS Duluth is still looking for volunteers in northern Minnesota and areas east of Lake Mille Lacs into northwest Wisconsin.

Here’s more on the CoCoRaHS program from the Twin Cities NWS office.

CoCoRaHS is the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow Network, a group of over 20,000 volunteer precipitation observers nationwide.  CoCoRaHS observers measure precipitation (rain, hail, and snow) that falls at their location, and share the data online.  

Reports from CoCoRaHS observers are used by many organizations at the local, state and national level, including the National Weather Service.  By volunteering as an observer you become a citizen scientist and play an important role in documenting how the weather affects your community. 

All you need to become an observer for CoCoRaHS is a standard 4-inch diameter rain gauge (shown in the photos above with links to vendors available on the CoCoRaHS website), and access to the internet to relay reports via the CoCoRaHS app or website. 

You can report daily, during the rain or snow season, or whenever you are able to take measurements.  It's up to you!  Any reports you can share are greatly appreciated. 

So if you’re game, sign up for the CoCoRaHS program through your local NWS office. You can help fill in the data gaps on precipitation for our Minnesota storms.