Volunteers needed to make rain, snow observations
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Photo by Gene RobbinsVolunteer weather observer Barbara Goodrich found about one-sixth of an inch of water in her rain gauge on a stormy day last week.
Weather network wants eyes
You can see
how wet it is
all by yourself
Weather
– 8WEATHER-
Gene RobbinsPacket Media Group
Barbara Goodrich starts her day with a cup of coffee, the crossword puzzle and her civic contribution.
She reads the rain gauge on her back deck, jots down the numbers and goes to her computer to send them to a statewide weather reporting site.
"I feel it’s a worthwhile thing," said the retired blood bank technician.
She’s forms a link in a growing chain of weather observers in the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS), which is looking for more volunteers of all ages to take a few minutes to report the amount of rain or snow that has fallen in their backyards each day.
CoCoRaHS, a nationwide network, has more than 15,000 observers across the country, but only about 200 in New Jersey.
All that is required to participate is a four-inch diameter plastic rain gauge, a ruler to measure snow, an Internet-connected computer and, most importantly, the desire to watch and report weather conditions.
Observations from CoCoRaHS volunteers are used by scientists and agencies whose decisions depend on timely and high-quality precipitation data. For example, hydrologists and meteorologists use the data to warn about the potential impacts of flood and drought.
David Robinson, New Jersey’s official state climatologist and N.J. CoCoRaHS co-coordinator, is one of six Hillsborough recorders. He lives in the Country Classics development near Amsterdam School and has yet to miss a day of reporting since CoCoRaHS began here on Groundhog Day four years ago. He tries to make midnight observations, as well as the network-suggested ones at 7 a.m.
Then again, the 56-year-old has been keeping his own weather records since he was in fourth grade, he said.
Knowing how much it snows or rains can be important to everyone, he said. Even if you don’t have a yard or garden, how much it snows may affect the bill (based on depth) your plowing contractor or condominium association charges, Dr. Robinson said.
On the flip side, knowing how dry it has been helps in projecting drought conditions.
"We want to know when it didn’t rain as much as when it did," he said.
"Weather matters to everybody meteorologists, car and crop insurance companies, outdoor enthusiasts and homeowners," said CoCoRaHS founder and national director Nolan Doesken. "Precipitation is perhaps the most important, but also the most highly variable element of our climate."
Dr. Robinson said he’s scheduled to give a talk to the N.J. Mosquito Control Association. Its budget constrained, the group has had to cut back on its own precipitation measurement-gathering, but using CoCoRaHS to learn about the amount and spread of rainfall could help it use its resources more tactically, he said.
More CoCoRaHS observations will supplement the automated N.J. Weather and Climate Network. "The wealth of observations provide a much more detailed picture of rain and snowfall patterns than previously possible," Dr. Robinson said.
Mrs. Goodrich recalls a day years ago when it rained in the front yard, but not in the back.
She and her husband Ray have reared three children in their 44 years in the home on a bluff above the South Branch of the Raritan River. A wide picture window over the kitchen sink looks out over a back yard with Jim Norz’s farm below, a bat house high up in a tree and euonymus bushes often trimmed at ground level by grazing deer.
Mrs. Goodrich knows the data-gathering task isn’t hard, and she’ll enlist her husband when the deck is slick or burdened with snow. She’s less a fan of the white stuff than the days when she endured it when driving a school bus.
Mrs. Goodrich said she’s always found weather fascinating she catches herself watching the clouds sometimes and the data collection is not dissimilar to the attention to detail she needed in her former job at the blood bank.
The observer job appeals to that slice of the population that engages in "citizen scientist" roles, said Dr. Robinson. Families sometimes take on the task in part to encourage kids to observe nature, to take on a public task and to teach the importance of adhering to a routine, he said.
"I’m so appreciative of these people," he said. "There are days when I want to write a note to each of them and say, ‘Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to help us out.’"
Volunteers are asked to read their rain gauge or measure any snowfall at the same time each day (preferably between 5 and 9 a.m.). Measurements are entered by the observer on the CoCoRaHS website, where they can be viewed in tables and maps. Training is provided, either through online training modules, or preferably, in group training sessions held around New Jersey.
Anyone interested in signing up or learning more can visit the website at www.cocorahs.org.
Dr. Robinson has a son who recently bought a house in Somerset. Dad gave son a rain gauge as a house-warming present.
"We’ll have another observer soon," said the climatologist.

