Volunteer weather observers in Illinois mark 5th anniversary

[November 29, 2011]  Every morning hundreds of volunteer rainfall observers in Illinois head out to check their rain gauges -- rain, snow or shine -- and report their information. They are part of the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, known as CoCoRaHS, which will mark its fifth anniversary in Illinois during December. There are 24 active observers in Logan County, and more are always welcome. 

CoCoRaHS is a grass-roots volunteer network of backyard weather observers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation -- rain, hail and snow -- in their local communities. The program started in Fort Collins, Colo., in 1998 and now exists in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. More than 10,000 volunteers participate nationwide.

Volunteers enter their observations on an interactive website, and the observations are immediately viewable on maps or in tables. CoCoRaHS observations can be viewed at www.cocorahs.org.

These observations are used every day by the National Weather Service, private meteorologists and climatologists, the media, civil engineers, municipalities, farmers, and many others, including the general public.

There are currently more than 500 observers across the state making and reporting daily rainfall and snow observations, supplementing the observations made at airports and by National Weather Service cooperative observers.

In the past five years Illinois observers have submitted more than 533,000 observations. Special reports on hail, heavy precipitation and other weather events are relayed to the National Weather Service and used to monitor flooding potential, severe thunderstorms, winter storms and other significant weather events.

Among the notable weather events that CoCoRaHS observations have helped document in Illinois are the flooding rains associated with the remnants of hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008, and the blizzard of Feb. 1-2 this year.

CoCoRaHS is looking for additional volunteers throughout Illinois. To find out more about this exciting program or to join, visit www.cocorahs.org and click on the "Join COCORAHS" link on the Web page.

[Text from file received]