Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network
International citizen science project
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Through Canada, Precipitation and Internet
History
In 1997, the network was started in Larimer County, Colorado, after a flash flood in Spring Creek killed five people and damaged structures in the city of Fort Collins, Colorado, including hundreds of millions of US dollars in damage to the Colorado State University campus.
The severity of the flood and its widespread spatial variability surprised meteorologists, and Nolan Doesken, a former assistant state climatologist for the state of Colorado, asked for precipitation measurements from private citizens in the area. About 300 responded to his emergency request for data. Said Doesken later:
"The results of the data showed that more than 14 in. (36 cm) of rain fell over southwest Fort Collins, the area where the flood waters originated, while less than 2 in. (5 cm) of rain fell only 3–4 mi (5–6 km) east. The enthusiastic interest shown by volunteers and the great value of the data verified the need for such a service, and CoCoRaHS was born."
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Expansion to other U.S. States/territories and other countries
The program was originally confined to Colorado (the first "Co" in "CoCoRaHS" stood for "Colorado" instead of "Community"), but began expanding to other states, first expanding to Wyoming in 2003, with the last expansion into Nebraska in March 2013.
Users
CoCoRaHS is used by a wide variety of organizations and individuals. The National Weather Service (NWS), other meteorologists, hydrologists, emergency managers, city utilities (water supply, water conservation, storm water), transportation departments, insurance adjusters, the USDA, engineers, mosquito control, ranchers and farmers, outdoor and recreation interests, teachers, students, and neighbors in the community are examples of people who use CoCoRaHS data.
Other programs
In or around 2000, the National Weather Service Lincoln, Illinois independently began a similar program, the Significant Weather Observing Program (SWOP). CoCoRaHS data supplements the more rigorous data from the national program with increased spatial and temporal resolution. Real-time data is also provided by the Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP), whose users operate weather stations that automatically report over the Internet, and which supplements the more rigorous data reported by formal surface weather observation stations. The earliest and thus critically important for its long-term historical record from respective locations is the Cooperative Observer program of manually recorded daily summaries.
Sponsors
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are major sponsors of CoCoRaHS and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is also a partner. Other organizations have contributed either financially or with supplies and equipment. Many other organizations and individuals have also pitched in time and resources to help keep the network up and running.
Forms
Gregory Syroney with the Scioto County Storm Chaser Center, in Portsmouth, Ohio created the Significant Weather Report Form PDF File for CoCoRaHS Headquarters in Fort Collins.
Status
As of 2015, all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico participate in CoCoRaHS.
Canada
In December 2011, the CoCoRaHS Canada network began in Manitoba following a massive flood in that province.
As of 2014, the network had expanded to the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan, with over 20,000 participants as of March 2015.