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Precipitation Monitoring Volunteers Needed

03/17/2023 4:31 PM | Deanna Fello (Administrator)

Have you ever sat home on a rainy/snowy day and ask yourself, “how much precipitation did we get”? Or how much did my hometown or favorite vacation spot get?  Or how is this rain event going to affect the lake level?

As you can imagine, precipitation amounts across our watershed vary significantly. The Seneca Lake watershed encompasses 457 square miles, 42 municipalities, and is located within five different counties. Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association would like to track precipitation amounts across the watershed and is seeking volunteers in each of the municipalities to report daily precipitation amounts.

Volunteers will submit measurements to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) Network which is a Citizen Science program headquartered at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. CoCoRaHS is a unique community-based network of volunteers working together to measure and report daily precipitation measurements to a central data store via the internet.

What’s involved?

CoCoRaHS has a detailed web site (cocorahs.org) that has instructions on how to install the gauge as well as how to report.

“For my station, I obtained a post from Lowes and created a point at the end of the post. I then dug a small hole and drove the post into the ground. Make sure the post is stable and most importantly, level. Ensure your gauge is level no matter where you place it. Remember to put the gauge in a spot that you can easily access every day, without obstruction.” – Wes Wilkert, Seneca Pure Waters Lake Level volunteer

Volunteers take daily readings before 9:00am and enter the data on the CoCoRaHs website. On this site you can also see other reports from areas across the country. It was interesting to see the reports come in from the Buffalo area this past December.

If you are interested in this program and would like to learn more, please submit a volunteer form by visiting https://senecalake.org/volunteer


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