WERA_OLD1012: Managing and Utilizing Precipitation Observations from Volunteer Networks

(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)

Status: Inactive/Terminating

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SAES-422 Reports

Annual/Termination Reports:

[12/19/2014] [01/21/2016] [09/16/2016] [09/20/2017] [07/20/2018]

Date of Annual Report: 12/19/2014

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 05/19/2014 - 05/21/2014
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2013 - 09/01/2014

Participants

Brief Summary of Minutes

Please see attached "Copy of Minutes" file below for WERA1012's annual report.

Minutes Attachment:

Attachment

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

Date of Annual Report: 01/21/2016

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 05/18/2015 - 05/20/2015
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2014 - 09/30/2015

Participants

Adnan Akyuz adnan.akyuz@ndsu.edu ND State Univ.
Tony Bergantino antonius@uwyo.edu Univ. of Wyoming
Kyle Brehe kbrehe@srcc.lsu.edu Southern Regional Climate Center
Glen Conner glen.conner@wku.edu KY State Climatologist Emeritus
Chris Daly chris.daly@oregonstate.edu PRISM/Oregon State Univ.
Nolan Doesken nolan@atmos.colostate.edu Colorado State Univ.
Laura Edwards laura.edwards@sdstate.edu South Dakota State Univ.
Stan Engle sengle@nmsu.edu NM Climate Center/NMSU
Chuck Hanagan chuck.hanagan@co.usda.gov Farm Service Agency Colorado
Steve Hilberg hberg@illinois.edu MRCC/Illinois State Water
Harry Hillaker Harry.Hillaker@Iowaagriculture.gov Iowa Dept. of Agriculture
Mary Knapp mknapp@ksu.edu Kansas State Univ.
Cindy Lutrell cocorahs@mesonet.org Univ. of Oklahoma
Ian Nichols inichols@weatherinnovations.com CoCoRaHS Canada-Htqrs
Nancy Selover selover@asu.edu Arizona State Univ.
Bill Sorensen wsorensen1@unl.edu High Plains Regional Climate Ctr
Jeff Steiner Jeffrey.steiner@colostate.edu Colorado State Univ./WERA
Kevin Stewart kstewart@udfcd.org Nat. Hydrologic Warning Council
Jim Williams james.williams@nebrasksa.gov NE Rain/NE Dept of Natural Res.
Jim Zdrojewski james.zdrojewski@noaa.gov NOAA/NWS HTQRS
Julian Turner julian.turner@colostate.edu CoCoRaHS HTQRS/CSU
Henry Reges henry.reges@colostate.edu CoCoRaHS HTQRS/CSU
Zach Schwalbe zach@cocorahs.org CoCoRaHS HTQRS/CSU
Noah Newman nnewman@atmos.colostate.edu CoCoRaHS HTQRS/CSU
Michael Willette qc@cocorahs.org CoCoRaHS HTQRS

Brief Summary of Minutes

The 8^th meeting of the WERA 1012 Committee convened at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, CO by Chair Laura Edwards. The first day started with a “State of the Program” presentation by Nolan Doesken. The CoCoRaHS program is now 17 years old. It continues to grow, with Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands added during the past year. The Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia were also added, with more expansion in Ontario. A highlight of the year was the installation of a CoCoRaHS gauge at the White House in April 2015. Tony Bergantino presented the results of an analysis of CoCoRaHS participation he had done, which ultimately highlighted the fact that while recruitment is important, retention is an area the program needs to devote more attention to.

Glen Conner, Kentucky State Climatologist Emeritus, gave a keynote presentation “Perceptions of Climate Change”.

Other topics discussed during the meeting were drought monitoring and drought impact reporting, snow water equivalent measuring with contributions from our Canadian partners, and Recruiting in Rural Areas: Success, Opportunities, and Challenges. Committee reports were presented for the following: Precipitation Measurements, Quality Assurance/Quality Control, CoCoRaHS/Coop Collaboration, March Madness Recruitment, Outreach/Education, and Sustainability/ Funding. Partner reports were given by the National Weather Service Coop program, including the 125^th Anniversary plans, the PRISM Group, and CoCoRaHS Canada. There were updates from CoCoRaHS headquarters staff and extended discussion with them on issues related to the program.

Accomplishments

Outreach and Education: CoCoRaHS has had a presence at school Water Festivals in Colorado presenting to 5th graders and recruiting schools to participate. A “Measuring Hail” video was developed and released through the CoCoRaHS YouTube channel. Quality Control/Quality Assurance: QC Ticketing System was expanded to include all participating Canadian provinces. Tickets may now be submitted for any state. A second version of the CoCoRaHS Error Checking Assistant (CECA) is in beta testing. A lot has been learned by the tracking of suspected data errors that will feedback to observer training with the goal of preventing errors. Precipitation Measurement: In-house publications have been compiled. A citation search of publications referencing precipitation measurements yielded more than 100K citations. A new committee (see below) will work to narrow the focus of the information to be gathered. Mobile app development continues. Plans are to add more functionality to the apps, including the ability to submit Significant Weather Reports. Committee missions were reviewed and two new committees were organized and one realigned. The Web Interface committee was dissolved. Recruitment-Retention Committee will replace the March Madness Committee, Chair: Henry Reges. Members: Tony Bergantino, Dave Robinson, Laura Edwards, Noah Newman, Stan Engle Coordinator Support Committee – new. Chair: Henry Reges. Members: Steve Hilberg, Jim Zdrojewski, Tony Bergantino, David Glenn, Dave Robinson Precipitation Prococols (new name for Precipitation Measurement). Chair: Tony Bergantino. Members: Adnan Akyuz, Nolan Doesken, Zach Schwalbe Innovation and Development – new, for creation of value added products. Chair: Adnan Akyuz. Members: Chris Daly, Ian Nichols, Bill Sorenson, Julian Turner, Nancy Selover, Cindy Lutrell, Tony Bergantino Education and Training- Chair: Mary Knapp. Members: Melissa Griffin, Adnan Akyuz, Noah Newman, Zach Schwalbe QualityAssurance/Quality Control – Chair: Steve Hilberg. Members: Tony Bergantino, Zach Schwalbe, Bill Sorenson, Tim Kearns, Matt Gerbush, Julian Turner, Michael Willette, Bryant Korzeniewski Collaboration – Chair: Mary Knapp. Members: Jim Zdrojewski, Harry Hillaker, Tim Kearns, Jim Williams, Ian Nichols or Angie (Canada) Sustainability – Chair: Nolan Doesken. Members: Henry Reges, Chris Daly, Mary Knapp

Publications

Impact Statements

The popularity and cost-effectiveness of a citizen-science effort such as CoCoRaHS has drawn international interest and inquiries. The importance of citizen science and the value of the CoCoRaHS program was recognized by the White House with the installation of a CoCoRaHS gauge on the White House grounds in April 2015.

Date of Annual Report: 09/16/2016

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 05/18/2016 - 05/20/2016
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2015 - 09/30/2016

Participants

Adnan Akyuz adnan.akyuz@ndsu.edu ND State Univ.
Tony Bergantino antonius@uwyo.edu Univ. of Wyoming
Chris Daly chris.daly@oregonstate.edu PRISM/Oregon State Univ.
Rob Davies robert.davies@usu.edu Utah State Univ.
Nolan Doesken nolan@atmos.colostate.edu Colorado State Univ.
Derek Eisentrout derek.eisentrout@noaa.gov NWS Morristown, TN
Stan Engle sengle@nmsu.edu NM Climate Center/NMSU
Chad Gimmestad chad.gimmestad@noaa.gov NWS – Boulder, CO
Michael Harrington michael.harrington@colostate.edu WAAESD, Fort Collins CO
Steve Hilberg hberg@illinois.edu MRCC/IL State Water/Univ. of IL
Harry Hillaker Harry.Hillaker@Iowaagriculture.gov Iowa Dept. of Agriculture
Mary Knapp mknapp@ksu.edu Kansas State Univ.
Katie Laro klaro@metstat.com MetStat, Inc.
Anne Ju Manning Anne.Manning@colostate.edu Colorado State Univ.
Ian Nichols inichols@weatherinnovations.com CoCoRaHS Canada-Headquarters
William Runyon thunderstruck13@hotmail.com Texas State CoCoRaHS Coordinator
Nancy Selover selover@asu.edu Arizona State Univ.
Bill Sorensen wsorensen1@unl.edu High Plains Regional Climate Center

CoCoRaHS Staff
Peter Goble peter@cocorahs.org
Noah Newman noah@cocorahs.org
Henry Reges hreges@atmos.colostate.edu
Zach Schwalbe zach.schwalbe@colostate.edu
Carol Stolz carol@cocorahs.org
Dani Talmadge qc@cocorahs.org
Julian Turner Julian.turner@colostate.edu

Brief Summary of Minutes

The 9^th meeting of the WERA 1012 Committee convened at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, CO by Chair Steve Hilberg. This year’s meeting was organized around three major themes: Recruiting and Retention, Sustainability, and Demonstrating Value. These are three areas that are critical to the continuing success of volunteer networks.

The meeting began with a short welcome presentation by Michael Harrington, WERA 1012 Advisor from Colorado State University.

Nolan Doesken from the CoCoRaHS National Office provided the annual status report for the past year. This past year has been characterized by a series of ups and downs. CoCoRaHS now has enough spatial and temporal coverage to be able to do some climate analysis. International expansion (Virgin Island, Bahamas) has presented some challenges. He mentioned that people still have trouble understanding how and how much used the data are (pointing to how we need to do a better job of demonstrating value). Data QC faltered about mid-year due to the departure of the person hired to perform QC (in addition to volunteers who QC data). This was resolved in early January when a new person was hired. Federal education funds have sustained CoCoRaHS in recent years (NOAA and NSF) but these major funding streams are ending. Nolan received many calls asking “are we going to make it” from higher-ups in federal and state agencies. The CoCoRaHS “Five for CoCoRaHS” fundraising this year was the best yet. Contributions from volunteers comprised about 25 percent of CoCoRaHS funding this year.

An analysis of participation trends indicate that the 12-month running average of signups has gradually declined over the last year. Active signups have also declined. About one third that sign up do not end up participating, and this has been fairly consistent from year to year. The

12-month running average of observers making last report in a month is increasing, indicating some increasing participation. CoCoRaHS growth trend is negative over about the last year. We have to attract about 4,000 new observers each year to maintain the number of reporting observers.

A highlight of the meeting was a presentation by Anne Ju Manning and Kimberly Stearn, Department of Public Relations, Colorado State University, “Communicating with Millennials: Social Media and Other Tactics”. CoCoRaHS participants are heavily weighted toward the 50+ age demographic and many do not engage in social media. This presentation provided key information for CoCoRaHS coordinators on effectively using social media to generate interest in CoCoRaHS and potentially recruit new observers.

A second presentation related to recruiting and retention,” Engaging Local Media about CoCoRaHS” was given by Ryan Hanrahan, a meteorologist with WVIT-TV in West Hartford, CT and a CoCoRaHS observer.

Katie Laro of MetStat, Inc. gave a presentation about a prototype for a low-cost electronic weighing rain gauge. The project is being developed in conjunction with a Mechanical Engineering Master’s student at CSU, and was the recipient of funding as the 2016 Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Design Project. The gauge will have n o moving components to break or fail. The design concept is to fir a weighing mechanism to the bottom of a standard CoCoRaHS rain gauge. It is being designed to work in all weather conditions, measure all types of precipitation in real-time (liquid equivalent), and send reports to users and cloud servers wirelessly through WIFI and the Internet. They are now in the process of assembling the rest of the design team. They expect to report on progress at next year’s WERA 1012 meeting.

Committee reports were presented for the following: Data Quality Assurance/Quality Control, Collaboration, Recruitment and Retention, Coordinator Support, Innovation and Development, Training and Education, and Sustainability. Partner reports were given by the National Weather Service Coop program, the National Centers for Environmental Information (Climate), the PRISM Group, and CoCoRaHS Canada. There were updates from CoCoRaHS headquarters staff and extended discussion with them on issues related to the program, including the new CoCoRaHS soil moisture measurement.

On the last morning meeting participants developed a prioritized to-do list for the coming year. The goal was to assemble a to-do list of action items that can be addressed by the WERA 1012 committee and perhaps completed in the coming year. This is important to maintain the momentum from the meeting and continuity for the next year.

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

Economic Value: The CoCoRaHS and NWS COOP combination provide an invaluable national data resource for monitoring weather and climate at a very low cost.

Date of Annual Report: 09/20/2017

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 05/17/2017 - 05/19/2017
Period the Report Covers: 05/01/2016 - 04/30/2017

Participants

Adnan Akyuz
Tony Bergantino
Michael Borengasser
Chris Daly
Nolan Doesken
Stan Engle
Amanda Farris
Brian Fuchs
Steve Hilberg
Windy Kelley
Mary Knapp
Bryant Korzeniewski
Rachel Kulik
Katie Laro
Jeff Lukas
Frank McMenimen
Tony Merriman
Jon Meyer
Kerri Jean Ormerod
Nancy Selover
Bill Sorensen
Matt Spies
Caitriana Steele
Kevin Stewart
Myles Wieshar
Jim Zdrojewski
Michael Harrington
Julian Turner
Henry Reges
Zach Schwalbe
Dani Talmedge
Peter Goble

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

WERA 1012 2017 Report.docx

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

Date of Annual Report: 07/20/2018

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 05/16/2018 - 05/18/2018
Period the Report Covers: 05/01/2017 - 04/30/2018

Participants

Participants Attachment:

2018Participants-formatted.docx

Brief Summary of Minutes

The 11th meeting of the WERA 1012 Committee convened at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, CO by Co‐Chairs Steve Hilberg and Chris Daly. This year’s meeting was organized around four main sessions: WERA Partners, Instrumentation and Protocols, Data, Data, and More Data, and CoCoRaHS Support and Operations.

The meeting began with a short welcome presentation by Michael Harrington, WERA 1012 Advisor from Colorado State University. He stated that the WERA 1012 Committee is up for renewal and he will be working with Nolan and Henry to get that done. He also reviewed NIFA and AFRI activities and funding, as well as implications of the new Farm Bill.

Russ Schumacher, the new Colorado State Climatologist talked about his background and perspective coming to the Colorado Climate Center and to CoCoRaHS.

WERA Partners

Molly Woloszyn, the Regional Drought Drought Information Coordinator, NOAA/National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) talked about how CoCoRaHS data are integrated into NIDIS activities across the country. CoCoRaHS is specifically mentioned in the 2016 NIDIS Implementation Plan. The 2016‐2020 NIDIS priorities focus on filling the gaps and increasing the compatibility of data sources. The NIDIS Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) are using citizen science to improve drought early warning through recruiting and training of new observers, especially in data‐sparse regions, and strengthening existing citizen‐science networks. CoCoRaHS Condition Monitoring Reports (piloted by Coastal Carolina DEWS) and E‐T and water balance maps (Midwest DEWS) are also being integrated.

Chris Daly with the PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University described some of the data issues they are trying to resolve. Varying observation times produce spatial discontinuities in the PRIMS data. PRISM day is 12UTC +/‐ 4 hrs., and they are currently testing a procedure to deal with shifting time of observations. PRISM is also a real stickler on data completeness, and if there are more than two days missing in a month data for that station is not used in the PRISM analysis.

Rick Fleetwood with Environment Canada (EC) and CoCoRaHS Canada spoke about CoCoRaHS Canada activities. They are pursuing expansion in all provinces now that the French version of the web site is now available. EC staff are using data in near‐real time to monitor drought, adjust flow records in winter river flows. EC staff is using CoCoRaHS data to supplement other networks with rain and snowfall and to aid in data QC and forecast verification. CoCoRaHS Canada is working to expand the evapotranspiration network (E‐T) and are promoting Condition Monitoring reports.

Jim Zdrojewski with the Climate Services Branch, National Weather Service provided a climate services update. Climate folds into all areas of the Weather Ready Nation (WRN) goals of the

NWS. He reported that hiring at NWS is much improved and streamlined. Positions are being filled at the field level. Most of the Program Manager positions are currently vacant, and they are processing applications for those now to fill them all. NWS forecast offices are shifting to automatic launch of weather balloons. They are training everyone to do every job in the forecast and operations side.

Tom Trunk Office of Observations, Programs Management Branch, National Weather Service gave a remote presentation on the history and background of the U.S.

Cooperative Network. He also reported that the NWS hopes to have hundreds of wireless MMTS sensors produced next year. They will be solar powered and will also have a Yagi (directional) antenna to transmit the signal to the base station. There are four test sites currently in operation.

Instrumentation and Protocols

Lucy Plahmer with WeatherYourWay.com, the major outlet for the 4‐inch rain gauge used by CoCoRaHS, described how her company got started and plans for the future. Ninety percent of her sales are for rain gauges and rain gauge parts, and she sells about 300‐400 gauges a month. Changes in the weather and seasons are reflected in rain gauge sales. Productive Alternatives, the wholesale supplier of the rain gauges informed her the price of the gauge will be going up and the shipping costs will also increase. There was some discussion of looking for an alternative to Productive Alternatives for the gauges. Right now they are the only game in town. Lucy indicated she will be updating her web site this year and hopes to have a smart phone app available as well.

Mike Crimmins, Associate Professor & Extension Specialist ‐ Climate Science, Department of Soil, Water, & Environmental Science, the University of Arizona gave a remote presentation about precipitation monitoring in remote ranches and rangeland for drought planning. They designed an “accumulation gauge” to collect rainfall in an area where gauges may not be checked frequently. Ranchers collect additional supporting information such as photos and notes when they visit these gauges. Future plans include availability of public maps and a historical climate data explorer.

There were discussions about the CoCoRaHS extreme rainfall protocol (i.e. what to do when the rain gauge overflows), changes in hailpad distribution (there is a waning interest in hailpads), the CoCoRaHS soil moisture measurements, and a new effort to develop a method and protocol to measure ice accretion.

Chris Daly concluded this session with a case study of rain gauge tampering in eastern Colorado and western Kansas in an attempt to compromise the Risk Management Agency’s rain index for the area to obtain insurance payouts. CoCoRaHS observations were important to the PRISM analysis, along with data from other networks.

Data, Data, and More Data

Amanda Farris , Program Manager for the Carolinas Integrated Sciences & Assessments discussed the status of the Condition Monitoring program, which they piloted. The program was launched nationally in October 2016 and 3213 observers are participating, and we need to continue to reach out to observers to encourage them to participate. The Condition Monitoring Reports are used regularly in drought monitoring, and area also used by the NWS for fire weather forecasts, winter weather, and frost/freeze information.

Nolan Doesken reviewed the expansion of the many applications and uses of CoCoRaHS data since the network began. He pointed out that we need to emphasize the local impacts of observing rather than the national aspects.

Steve Hilberg described and demonstrated the E‐T and water balance maps ow produced by the Midwestern Regional Climate Center for the Midwest DEWS. This is the only spatial depiction of these parameters currently available.

Dani Talmadge and Steve Hilberg updated everyone on the status of CoCoRaHS quality control and quality assurance. There are roughly 5500 QC tickets generated per year, with most errors occurring in winter with the addition of snow measurements.

CoCoRaHS Support and Operations

Nolan Doesken reported that CoCoRaHS is going strong. We have gone several years without any of the federal grants that helped us to get to the national and international scale. Both the Canada and Bahamas are strong. Rural recruiting continues to be a challenge, especially in the Midwest and Great Plains.

Henry Reges reported on activities with respect to state and regional coordinator support. He has visited over 50 NWS offices and the Bahamas. He gives a motivational talk on these visits to encourage more involvement. If the MIC, SOO, and WCM in the NWS offices are on board the office does well supporting CoCoRaHS. He hopes to have the development of the state and regional coordinator support page completed this summer.

Matt Spies, Connecticut State Coordinator reported on recruiting and retention. The number of daily reports per day were higher in 2017 than in 2016 especially in the warm season, and we are on about the same track for 2018. There were about 4 million reports in 2017, about three percent higher than in 2016. However, there has been a general decline in gains over the past several years. We generally need two new observers to keep one reporting in the long term.

Julian Turner from CoCoRaHS headquarters provided an update on the status of IT. There are a number of overarching issues to deal with. Ideally, additional personnel resources are needed to work on the operational website and database, web development, app development, and system administration. Internet security has become a major issue to deal with on a daily basis.

Microsoft recognizes CoCoRaHS as a non‐profit, and that allows CoCoRaHS to use Office 365 for free. It is multi‐functional and will allow us to be more flexible and collaborative (dedicated email, form generation, Skype for Business, file storage and sharing, etc.). The CoCoRaHS staff and a few state coordinators are testing this out now. Julian continues to work on the CartoDB mapping system which will expand the capability of users to visualize data.

Nolan Doesken outline the five proposed objectives for the 2019‐2024 WERA 1012 renewal.

Promote volunteer precip obs as a cost‐effective approach to monitoring a highly variable and critically important part of our climate

Increase the quantity and representativeness while improving the quality and usefulness of data

Increase and improve communication, connectedness, and sense of purpose among and across the community of

Explore and promote research utilizing precip data from volunteers and volunteer networks

Establish new and strengthen existing partnerships to provide financial assets, human resources, and the intellectual capital needed to sustain these volunteer networks for years to come

Some proposed activities to support these activities area:

Leverage partnerships to show the effectiveness of the citizen science network for

Utilize the Spatial Proximity Factor (SPF) implementation, rural recruiting
- Provide tools to coordinators to more effectively communicate with observers (notification system, newsletter techniques

Advertise the use of the data by the NOAA and other national agencies to generate maps and do research on

Show the economic benefit of CoCoRaHS to various sectors, insurance, agriculture, transportation, hydrology, hazard mitigation, etc

Henry Reges outlined the financial status of CoCoRaHS for the past 12 months. Expenses were

$415K, with 354$K in direct expenditures and $61K in indirect costs (overhead). Income includes a grant from PRISM, the Year‐End fundraiser, the National Mesonet, local Colorado user fees, and gifts. In June there will be a 7‐day fundraiser and CoCoRaHS water bottles will be given away for donations $60 and higher. They will be looking at other sources of revenue including data users outside of Colorado, foundations, private corporations, etc.

Election of the 2019 officers was held. We will try a new model, pairing a previous chair with a new chair for continuity and experiences. Mary Knapp/Steve Hilberg President for 2019; Russ Schumacher/Nancy Selover for 2020. Approved by the committee by voice vote.

The last session of the annual meeting was a discussion and brainstorming about communicating about WERA 1012 to coordinators and partners on a regular basis, encouragement to contribute and attend, how to best maintain continuity from year to year, assembling a to‐do list of action items that can be addressed by the committee and perhaps completed in the coming year. This led to a long discussion about the value of newsletters and communicating to our observers.

The group discussed how to better communicate the existence and activities of this committee to all of our coordinators to generate interest. Henry proposed there be a liaison between the committee and coordinators. Steve will develop an executive summary of the meeting that can be sent to coordinators, and Steve and Nolan will work on a regular series of articles/email that can be posseted to the coordinator group between now and the next meeting to keep the committee’s activities visible to coordinators. Steve will prepare a list of tasks/decisions from this meeting and distribute it to the committee.

Accomplishments

Henry Reges, CoCoRaHS National Coordinator, visited 29 National Weather Service offices this year to promote CoCoRaHS and to connect with the many NWS staff who serve as volunteer state and regional coordinators for CoCoRaHS. The following is a list of presentations made during the report period. International ‐‐ National Conferences and Venues Oral Presentation       AMS 23rd Conference on Applied Climatology, Asheville, NC, June 2017 Oral Presentation   American Association of State Climatologists Annual Meeting Asheville, NC, June 2017 Participant        Commission of Basic Systems (CBS) Committee Meeting, Geneva, Switzerland, September 2017 Oral Presentation       WMO Workshop on Information Management, Geneva, Switzerland, October 2017 State/Regional/Local   Presentations‐Exhibits‐Gatherings <ul> <li>National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Salt Lake City, UT NWS Western Regional Headquarter ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Salt Lake City, UT Utah State Climate Office – visit – Logan, UT</li> <li>National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Pocatello, ID National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Boise, ID</li> <li>National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Morristown, TN</li> <li>National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Greenville, SC National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Peachtree City, G </li> <li>National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Billings, MT National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Glasgow, MT National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Bismarck, ND North Dakota State Climate Office – visit – Fargo, ND</li> <li>Environment Canada Regional Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Winnipeg, MB, Canada Manitoba Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management ‐ visit – Winnipeg, MB, Canada National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Grand Forks, ND    Productive Alternatives (Rain Gauge Manufacturer) ‐ visit – Fergus Falls, MN</li> <li>National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Pittsburgh, PA National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Cleveland, OH National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Buffalo, NY</li> <li>Weather Innovations (CoCoRaHS Canada Headquarters) – visit – Chatfield, ON, Canada National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Syracuse (South Bend), IN Ohio State Climate Office – CoCoRaHS presentation – Columbus, OH</li> <li>National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Cincinnati, OH National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Indianapolis, IN Midwest Regional Climate Center – visit – Champaign, IL</li> <li>National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – St. Louis, MO National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Lincoln, IL National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Paducah, KY Missouri State Climate Office – visit – Columbia, MO</li> <li>National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Louisville, KY </li> <li>WMO sponsored CoCoRaHS Bahamas Sustainability Trip – Freeport, Nassau, Abaco Island, San Salvador Island, Bahamas </li> <li>National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Las Vegas, NV National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Flagstaff, AZ National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Tucson, AZ National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Phoenix, AZ</li> <li>National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Key West, FL National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Miami, FL National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Tallahassee, FL National Weather Service Office ‐ CoCoRaHS presentation – Mobile, AL </li> <li>Noah Newman, CoCoRaHS Education Coordinator, presented CoCoRaHS materials at 26 different events including school visits, teacher workshops, training sessions and promotional events, reaching over 800 people (and separately 15,000 attendees of the STEM Day at the Colorado Rockies Coors Field).</li> <li>The Midwest Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) worked with the Midwestern Regional Climate Center to produce maps of CoCoRaHS measured evapotranspiration and water balance. These maps are available on the MRCC web site (https://mrcc.illinois.edu/cliwatch/drought/drought.jsp#evap)</li> <li>Modifications were made to the data display on the CoCoRaHS web site to display complete snowfall and water equivalent data has improved winter‐time quality control. </li> <li>Modifications were made to the CoCoRaHS QC Ticketing database so that now all state coordinators and regional coordinators automatically receive email notification of tickets issued for CoCoRaHS observations in their respective areas. During the past year 5930 QC tickets were submitted.</li> </ul>

Publications

Lackstrom, K., A. Farris, D. Eckhardt, N. Doesken, H. Reges, J. Turner, K. Smith, and R. Ward, 2017: CoCoRaHS Observers Contribute to ʺCondition Monitoringʺ in the Carolinas: A New Initiative Addresses Needs for Drought Impacts Information. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. doi:10.1175/BAMS‐D‐16‐0306.1, (published in BAMS, December 2017) Reges, Henry W, CoCoRaHS/Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO; and J. Turner. 2017: “Guidance for Managing Crowdsourced Data”. WMO Workshop on Information Management (WWIM), Geneva, Switzerland, October 2017. <ol start="2017"> <li>Andrew Sheppard, Julian Turner, Jacob Thebault‐Spieker, Haiyi Zhu, and Loren 2017. Never Too Old, Cold or Dry to Watch the Sky: A Survival Analysis of Citizen Science Volunteerism. Proc. ACM Hum.‐ Comput. Interact. 1, CSCW, Article 94 (November 2017), 21 pages. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3134729">https://doi.org/10.1145/3134729</a></li> </ol> Appels, Willemijn M., Bradford, Lori, Chun, Kwok P., Coles, Anna E., and Graham Strickert, 2017: DIY Meteorology - Use of Citizen Science to Monitor Snow Dynamics in a Data-Sparse City. Facets, published online 26 Sept, 2017. Mattingly, K.S., Lynne Seymour and Paul W. Miller, 2017. Estimates of Extreme Precipitation Frequency Derived from Spatially Dense Rain Gauge Observations: A Case Study of Two Urban Areas in the Colorado Front Range Region. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Vol. 107, Iss. 6, 2017. Suriano Z.J., Leathers D.J., 2017. Synoptically classified lake-effect snowfall trends to the lee of Lakes Erie and Ontario. Clim Res 74:1-13. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01480">https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01480</a>. Cocks, S.B., J. Zhang, S.M. Martinaitis, Y. Qi, B. Kaney, and K. Howard, 2017: MRMS QPE Performance East of the Rockies during the 2014 Warm Season. J. Hydrometeor., 18, 761–775, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-16-0179.1">https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-16-0179.1</a> Curtis, M. B., 2017: A synoptic and mesoscale analysis of heavy rainfall at Portland, ME 13-14 August 2014. J. Operational Meteor., 5 (7), 78-86, doi: https://doi.org/10.15191/nwajom.2017.0507.

Impact Statements

• The National Hurricane Center uses CoCoRaHS for post‐storm analysis. (https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/index.php?season=2017&basin=atl)