A Day in the Life of the CoCoRaHS Network

摘要

CoCoRaHS (the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network) was first described in Weatherwise in 2010. Since that time, this network of rain gauge "tenders" has expanded to all of the provinces of Canada, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas. With more than 22,000 active participants, it continues to be the largest single source of daily precipitation observations. This April the network recorded its 50 millionth observation submitted by an observer. It shines as a sterling example of how the larger nonprofessional community of citizen scientists can play a vital role in providing critical meteorological information that many professionals use on a daily basis. Let's follow along in this semi-fictitious Saturday Evening Post-like narrative in the life of a day of CoCoRaHS, highlighting what is new (but in some aspects still the same) over the past decade.