The advances in weather radar over the past 25 years have been astounding. The tools now available to forecasters have greatly improved our ability to detect and warn severe weather. Now, everyone can get live radar feeds on their computers and smart phones. Of course, it wasn't always that way. 71 years ago the first tornado hook echo was observed, by chance, on a research radar in central Illinois. I wrote about this in a blog post on the 60th anniversary of the event. Here is the link to that post: First Tornado Hook Echo Observed 60 Years Ago Today ..read more

A new approved rain gauge, the Tropo rain gauge from Climalytic Instruments, is now available to CoCoRaHS observers. This is a "premium" alternative to the Stratus gauge manufactured by Productive Alternatives. These are the only two gauges approved for CoCoRaHS (along with the NWS 8" standard rain gauge). I've been seeing a lot of comments about the new Tropo gauge, it's cost, and other things the past two weeks. We realize that many observers cannot or do not want to spend the money for the features it offers. The Tropo gauge incorporates many suggestions made by CoCoRaHS observers over the ..read more

Snow observations from the dense CoCoRaHS network provide forecasters and other users data and information that would otherwise not be available. The measurements of snow and related snow water equivalent measurements are optional but extremely beneficial. These extra observations take more time and often present challenges that you won't encounter just measuring rain. There seems to be a good deal of misunderstanding about what exactly constitutes 24-hour Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) and how it is measured. The definition is included in our Glossary of Terms on the CoCoRaHS web site. The 24 ..read more

If you are a new observer or even if you have been making CoCoRaHS observations for awhile, you may not be aware of the significance of 100 daily observations. When you have made 100 daily precipitation observations (multi-day reports not included) the data from your station becomes part of the CoCoRaHS data archived by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Daily CoCoRaHS observations are ingested into the Global Historical Climate Network-Daily archive, the data set that includes all daily data from U.S. Cooperative network stations, airport weather stations, and CoCoRaH ..read more

The July WxTalk webinar featured Ron Holle, a meteorological consultant with extensive experience in meteorological education issues, particularly those relating to lightning safety and the demographics of lightning victims and damages. His presentation,"International Lightning" described global and U.S. lightning occurrence and fatalities.  World-wide lightning density for 2021 During his presentation Holle described what countries have the most lightning strikes. Brazil is at the top of the list, the United States second, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Australia ..read more

Several years ago I was watching the U.S. vs. Portugal in a World Cup match played in Brazil and there was a reference to something called the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT). It was the first time I had heard of this (or paid attention when it was mentioned). That led to a search for more information and a blog post. With extreme heat being in the news these days and hearing some mentions of WBGT I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the topic with some updated information. Most of us are familiar with the Heat Index used here in the U.S. to describe the combined effects of temperatu ..read more

The May WxTalk Webinar featured Eric Skyllingstad with Oregon State University Corvallis, OR describing the variety of weather along the west coast caused by the proximity to the Pacific Ocean. In the winter, large storms are fed energy by the evaporation of water and can generate intense rainfall and hurricane-force winds when they collide with the coastal terrain.  Summer days often end with a simple wind shift that brings cool ocean air inland.  An important part of these weather events is the exchange of energy, water, and momentum between the ocean and atmosphere over the coasta ..read more

After my blog post on April 5 about keeping birds from using your gauge as a porta-potty a number of observers posted ideas on our Facebook group about their solutions.There is no lack of creativity out there. The most important thing to remember about any solution you come up with is that it does not direct any additional water into the gauge, i.e. nothing can drip or run into the funnel from wires, toothpicks, or whatever. Dave, our CoCoRaHS observer at PA-BK-48 in Newtown, PA found a commercial solution. Ambient, a company electronic rain gauges and weather stations has a bird deterrent for ..read more

CoCoRaHS' annual Hail Week has come to a close, but this post wraps it up with some additional climatological information on hail. If you have been following this week's Messages of the Day you have seen how to measure hail, report it, and how to make a hail pad. (Mobile app users should select "View message of the day" after submitting you daily observation). Hail is a fascinating phenomena and there is a lot of information available if you want to learn more about it. The CoCoRaHS Hail page  has some information, and you can find a lot more information at Living With Weather- Hail on t ..read more

Spring...when flowers bloom, gardens get planted, and birds sometimes decide to use the 4-inch rain gauge for a perch and/or a porta-potty. Although a properly perched bird or two can be a great photographic opportunity, more often than not they leave a mess. What can you do to discourage our feathered friends from perching on the gauge while at the same time not affecting the catch of the rain gauge?  A few years ago Nolan Doesken, CoCoRaHS founder, put out an appeal for suggestions on how to deal with this problem. He received quite a range of ideas. Here are a few of them. Use tape ..read more