Gardeners are among the most weather obsessed people I know. It makes sense, of course, since our hobby, our passion, is so dependent on temperature (no early freeze this fall, please) and moisture (too much or too little, both can be a problem) and wind–don’t get me started on the wind.
So, when my friend Donna Allenbaugh told me about CoCoRaHS, the community weather project, I decided to join. CoCoRaHS stands for Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, Snow Network. This project was started in Colorado by Nolan Doeskin, CSU meteorologist, after a particularly devastating flood near Ft. Collins in 1998. It has grown to include every state in the union. The people who use this site include gardeners, the National Weather Service, water conservation districts, city utilities, farmers, and more.
Have you ever felt that everyone else was getting rain but you? Here is a way to document your rainfall and see what other people in your neighborhood or county received. The only cost in joining is the purchase of a 4″ rain gauge. I hope you consider it. If you go to the CoCoRaHS website and click on the map of the U.S., and then click again on Colorado, you will see the state divided into counties. Each community member is represented by a dot on the map. When you report your rainfall, it’s noted on the map on your dot. My little dot is at the bottom of Pueblo County, between I-25 and Hwy 165. You don’t have to join to look at the maps and access the information. Here’s the link. Have fun: http://www.cocorahs.org/
