Volunteer network measures precipitation across the country

A CoCoRaHS rain gauge in Castle Valley, Utah(Credit: Tom Haraden/CoCoRaHS)

A group of citizen rain collectors is helping organizations such as the National Weather Service to monitor precipitation more accurately, Great Lakes Echo reported.

The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network uses a network of volunteers to measure rain and snowfall across the country. Founded in 1998 in Colorado, the group known more succinctly as CoCoRaHS maintains two requirements for membership: a rain gauge and an interest in environmental science.

The group’s monitoring information is loaded into a database, and used by organizations to measure precipitation where radar is unavailable. The National Weather Service finds the snow measurements particularly valuable, and uses them to predict water level increases due to snow melts.

Image: A CoCoRaHS rain gauge in Castle Valley, Utah (Credit: Tom Haraden/CoCoRaHS)