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Carolinas needs more weather volunteers

The program accumulates rain, hail and snow reports recorded in people's backyards.

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, S.C. — A month-long campaign is underway to recruit new volunteers for a nationwide network of weather volunteers.

The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, also known as CoCoRaHS, is actively looking for new volunteers to report weather from their backyard.

"Citizen weather observers are able to provide us with data in areas that are under-sampled by other networks," Melissa Griffin, the assistant state climatologist in South Carolina, explained Friday. "So by having a dense network of citizen scientists.... officials get a better idea of what precipitation has fallen."

The program asks volunteers to submit daily reports of any rain, snow or hail accumulations at their homes. The data is published publically and aids the National Weather Service, emergency officials, and television meteorologists including WCNC Charlotte and WLTX News 19.

"Even in counties and in metropolitan areas where we have a lot of people, we still want observers," Griffin explained ."But we're really looking for observers in those particular areas and counties that are currently under representative."

In South Carolina, where the governor declared it Citizen Weather Observer Week, there are fifteen counties where the program has fewer than five observers. 

"Chesterfield County is an example of one of those counties," she said. "It's a large county. So the more observers that we can have in an area, the better understanding that we can have a precipitation that falls across the area." 

CoCoRaHS volunteers submit weather daily but have been extra critical during severe weather.

"Especially during Florence in 2018, the highest rainfall totals were actually observed by people who are members of this citizen science weather program," Griffin explained. 

To join CoCoRaHS, volunteers can submit data on the network's website.

 "We ask all volunteers get this particular rain gauge," Griffin explained. "It's a four-inch diameter rain gauge, and everyone uses the same rain gauge. So there's consistency." 

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