Tracking Precipitation

Betsy had a post about weather on her blog and it inspired me to share information about the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (COCORHAS), a "grassroots 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. " We read about COCORHAS in the Tennessee Magazine, a monthly magazine that our power company puts out. We've been participating in COCORHAS for 13 months now. We purchased the special rain gauge from COCORHAS, as required, and every morning at 8:00 Doug goes on line to report the amount of precipitation that we had in our guage. We can look on the map and see how much rain fell in other parts of the state, or in the country if we choose. Right now we are the only station in our county. Up until a few months ago there were two of us but the other guy must have stopped doing it. Other than the purchase of their special rain gauge (and hail pad if you choose, but we chose not to since we seldom receive hail), to keep things standard, there is no cost, and it is fun! COCORHAS also has a blog.