Help science by volunteering to be a weather observer

It’s March Madness in the college basketball world but meteorologists and climatologists are having their own month-long competition.

Each state in the United States is competing for the highest number of new weather observers with the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network.

CoCoRaHS is looking for volunteers to report rainfall levels from the comfort of their home.

Because of the variability of precipitation, rainfall amounts can be quite different only blocks apart.

Volunteers report rainfall to CoCoRaHS to help the network better understand where it did and did not rain. The network is looking for more volunteers to help fill in the gaps by recruiting a friend or relative during the contest.

Florida has been participating in the weather-observing network since 2007.

“Florida has extremely variable rainfall over short distances, especially during the summer wet season," Danny Brouillette, climatologist with the Florida Climate Center, a unit of Florida State University, and a Florida coordinator for CoCoRaHS, said.  “Data gathered from CoCoRaHS volunteers are very important in better understanding local weather and climate patterns.”

The data submitted each morning is accessible to anyone through the CoCoRaHS website on an easily viewable map. The entire process takes about 5 minutes or less each day.

You can join and become an official observer by going to the CoCoRaHS website and click on the "Join CoCoRaHS" emblem on the upper right side of the page.

You then take a quick online training module and order your 4-inch rain gauge and you are good to go!

Brouillette can be reached by e-mail at dbrouillette@coaps.fsu.edu or telephone at 850-644-0719 if you have any questions as well as Ivetta Abramyan, who is the other Florida state coordinator for CoCoRaHS, at ivetta.abramyan@fscj.edu.

Cox Media Group