SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: WERA1012 : Managing and Utilizing Precipitation Observations from Volunteer Networks (from WDC43)
- Period Covered: 05/01/2022 to 04/30/2023
- Date of Report: 07/31/2023
- Annual Meeting Dates: 05/16/2023 to 05/18/2023
Participants
Colin Gholson South Dakota State University Extension Laura Richard Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Russ Schumacher Colorado State University Casey Olson Utah Climate Center Joel Lisonbee NOAA/NIDIS/CU Boulder, CIRES Tye Parzybok Climalytic Instruments, LLC Alicia Wasula STM Weather Alexis Clouser Forecaster Keith Thompson CoCoRaHS Shawn Byrne National Weather Service Bill Sorensen High Plains Regional Climate Center Ketzel Levens National Weather Service Duluth MN Sean Poulos National Weather Service Alexa Davis NE Dept. of Natural Resources Dehvynne Ashmore NE Dept. of Natural Resources James Williams Nebraska Department of Natural Resources Jim Zdrojewski NWS Climate Services Tony Bergantino Wyoming State Climate Office Beth Hall Purdue University Amy Fritz National Weather Service Nancy J Selover Arizona State Climate Office Retired Kelly Smith NDMC - University of Nebraska Christopher Daly Oregon State University/PRISM Matthew Sittel Kansas State University Rachel Kulik Nebraska state coordinator Noah Newman CoCoRaHS HQ Julian Turner CoCoRaHS HQ Henry Reges CoCoRaHS HQ Nolan Doesken founder of CoCoRaHS Carol Stolz CoCoRaHS HQ Steve Hilberg CoCoRaHS HQ and Illinois State Coordinator
Accomplishments
Short-term Outcomes:
- 26,122 stations have submitted a Daily Report in the past 365 days.
- Condition Monitoring Reports – up 6% from previous year.
- Evapotranspiration Reports – up 5% from previous year.
- Significant Weather Reports – up 7% from previous year.
- Hail Reports – up 22% from previous year.
Outputs:
- The number of daily reports have grown 0.7% in the last year – 87% in 13 years.
- The number of observers has also grown 2.3% over the last year – 70% in 13 years.
- Multiday reports saw a 10% increase.
- DEx in final phases of testing
- Ice Accretion 2nd year - research to practice.
Activities:
Henry Reges, CoCoRaHS National Coordinator:
State/Regional/Local Presentations-Exhibits-Gatherings
This travel portion taken includes CoCoRaHS canvasing of FSA, Conservation District offices, state extension, NRCS, Forest Service, libraries, potential donors, NWS, state climate offices, drought partners, etc.
June 2022
- Southwest Drought Learning Network Annual Meeting – presentation – Las Cruces, NM
- National Weather Service Office – Coordinator visit – Albuquerque, NM
- American Association of State Climatologists Annual Meeting – attendee – Durham, NH
July 2022
- National Hydrologic Warning Council – virtual ZOOM presentation
- NWS Central Region OPL Meeting – virtual ZOOM presentation
August 2022
- National Weather Service Office – Coordinator visit – Billings, MT
- National Weather Service Office – Coordinator visit – Great Falls, MT
- National Weather Service Office – Coordinator visit – Missoula, MT
- Montana State Climate Office – Coordinator visit – Missoula, MT
- National Weather Service Office – Coordinator visit/presentation – Pocatello, ID
- National Weather Service Office – Coordinator visit – Davenport, IA
- Midwest Regional Climate Hub/Iowa State Univ. – visit with Director – Ames, IA
- Iowa Flood Center/Univ of Iowa – presentation – Iowa City, IA
- National Weather Service Office – Coordinator visit – Des Moines, IA
September 2022
- Louisiana Cattlemen Association – virtual ZOOM presentation
- USGS-ITEP Client Day Workshop at the 16thBiennial Conference of Science & Management on the
- Colorado Plateau & Southwest Region – Tribal presentation – Flagstaff, AZ
- Various visits to NPS Headquarters at Zion NP and Bryce NP, Regional Coordinator visit St. George, UT
- National Weather Service Office – Coordinator visit – Las Vegas, NV
- 2nd North American Hail Workshop – Panel Member, poster – Boulder, CO
October 2022
- 2nd WMO GCOS Climate Observation Conference – virtual ZOOM presentation – Darmstadt, Germany
November 2022
- National Weather Service Office – Coordinator visit/presentation – Springfield, MO
- NWS Central Region Headquarters visit/presentation – Kansas City, MO
- National Weather Service Office– Coordinator visit/presentation – Pleasant Hill (KC), MO
- National Weather Service Office – Coordinator visit/presentation – Topeka, KS
- Kansas State Climate Office – Coordinator visit – Manhattan, KS
- University of Nebraska – class presentation – Lincoln, NE
- National Drought Mitigation Center – staff visit – Lincoln, NE
December 2022
- Citizen Science Organization – virtual ZOOM presentation
January 2023
- American Metrological Society Annual Meeting – Student Conference Keynote Address – Denver, CO
- American Metrological Society Annual Meeting – Session Chair/presentation – Denver, CO
- American Metrological Society Annual Meeting – Town Hall presentation – Denver, CO
February 2023
- Louisiana State Government, FSA, Dept of Natural Resources – virtual ZOOM presentation.
March 2023
- National Weather Service Office– Coordinator visit/presentation – Jacksonville, FL
- University of Florida, Geography Dept – presentation – Gainesville, FL
- National Weather Service Office – Coordinator visit/presentation – Melbourne, FL
April 2023
- National Weather Service Office– Coordinator visit/presentation – Tampa, FL
- US Drought Monitor Forum - presentation — Boulder City, NV
- Southwest Tribal Drought Conversation - presentation/exhibit — Flagstaff, AZ
- National Weather Service Office– Coordinator visit/presentation – Tucson, AZ
- National Weather Service Office– Coordinator visit/presentation – Phoenix, AZ
Noah Newman, CoCoRaHS Education and Outreach Coordinator:
- Mozilla Hub - April 7 – presented live in a virtual-reality on-line science museum.
- CoCoRaHS presentation at Ivy Stockwell School in Berthoud - April 14 – school garden club
- Live interview on The Weather Channel - April 20
- Citizen Science 2022 Conference (virtual) - May 24 - Poster session presentation
- NOAA panel for Citizen Science in Fisheries - August 23 – invited by NOAA Office of Education
- School presentations in Durango - November 3 – 2 schools during the We Are Water project in Bayfield.
- Presentation to the GLOBE Program - December 5 – Ideas to Impact: ESS Collaborative invitation
- AMS Conference presentations - January 11-12 – co-presentation with Jenny Hastings and co-panelist with Henry Reges
- Space Science Institute – February 16 - CoCoRaHS presentation about celebrating water on Earth Day
- Presentation to Trail Life Scouts - March 29 – CoCoRaHS presentation to scout group in Loveland.
Milestones:
- On the software development front, we worked on the unified data access layer, prototyping or planning several long-term projects, and developing the station data dashboard.
- Development of the CoCoRaHS Data Explorer (DEx) - https://dex.cocorahs.org/. The Data Explorer is an evolution of the Water Year Summary Dashboard and the NOAA Normals data products we released last year. Our goals are to provide the water year summary data products over flexible date ranges, and to incorporate NOAA and PRISM Normals data to provide a climatological context to the station data. We also hope that by highlighting gaps in station data, we can encourage observers to report more consistently in the future.
Impacts
- CoCoRaHS data are used in grids by PRISM, which in turn are used by the crop insurance industry. CoCoRaHS data save tax payers millions and millions of dollars per year, with $100 billion of crop value insured every year.
- In addition to Condition Monitoring Reports, CoCoRaHS rainfall and evapotranspiration measurements are incorporated into drought monitoring tools at the Midwest Regional Climate Center: https://mrcc.purdue.edu/cliwatch/drought/drought.jsp
- CoCoRaHS is a source of new U.S. Coop observers
- CoCoRaHS data are used by Natural Resource Conservation Service range condition recommendations, which in turn feeds decision by producers (stocking).
- CoCoRaHS Condition Monitoring Reports have had a significant positive impact on the assessment of drought. For example, The North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council incorporates report information into the weekly state drought map. NWS Forecast Offices in the Carolinas reported using the reports to recommend the drought status in their county warning areas and for other products and forecasts (e.g., fire weather warnings). US Drought Monitor map authors download the reports each week as a GIS layer, as part of their “convergence of evidence” in designating drought.
- CoCoRaHS precipitation data and Significant Weather Reports are used to verify radar, and are part of NWS Local Storm Reports (LSR) during severe weather and snowstorms. They are used in “event maps” for significant storms by NWS offices.
- CoCoRaHS Snowfall data are used to secure federal snow removal aid (FEMA). Snowfall used to determine resolution of snow plowing contracts.
- The National Hurricane Center uses CoCoRaHS for post‐storm analysis.
- CoCoRaHS data provides the observational density to ensure the quality of both networks (CoCoRaHS and COOP).
- CoCoRaHS data used to quality control U.S. Cooperative data, and vice versa.
- CoCoRaHS data are used to help verify State Records from the COOP network, and high quality CoCoRaHS observations can also set records for precipitation.
- CoCoRaHS is a designated case study in the Federal Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Toolkit: https://www.citizenscience.gov
- CoCoRaHS promotes the use of citizen scientist data in the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network (NCSMMN).
Publications
- Joseph, Naveen et al., 2022: Evaluating the impact of turbidity, precipitation, and land use on nutrient levels and atrazine concentrations in Illinois surface water as determined by citizen scientists , The Science of the total environment, 158081. 16 Aug. 2022.
- Lackstrom, Kirsten, Amanda Farris, and Rebecca Ward, 2022. Backyard Hydroclimatology: Citizen Scientists Contribute to Drought Detection and Monitoring, Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., (published online ahead of print 2022).
- Fleishman, E., & Climate Change Research Institute, O., 2023: Sixth Oregon climate assessment. : [Corvallis, Oregon] : Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Oregon State University.
- Fuka D, Garna RK, Easton Z, Faulkner J, Collick AS., 2023: Benefits of Using Higher Density Lower Reliability Weather Data from the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) Monitors for Watershed Modelling. Authorea Preprints; 2023. DOI: 10.22541/au.168252658.82280850/v1.