{"id":831,"date":"2013-12-04T13:05:07","date_gmt":"2013-12-04T20:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/?p=831"},"modified":"2013-12-04T13:50:33","modified_gmt":"2013-12-04T20:50:33","slug":"rainfall-monitoring-pays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/2013\/12\/04\/rainfall-monitoring-pays\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainfall monitoring pays off"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n \"rain<\/a>\n
The Extension Office’s rain gauge (on a dry day)<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

By Paul Wilson, Columbia County Master Woodland Manager<\/i><\/p>\n

My cats get me up every morning by 7:30.\u00a0 They get fed.\u00a0 \u00a0I check the rain gauge.<\/p>\n

Then I record the amount and other observations on a website.\u00a0 After more than a year, I have a habit.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s simple, useful, and fun.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re five years into reforesting a clearcut.\u00a0\u00a0 The early spring after our first planting was unusually dry, but the effects varied a lot even on our small forest. \u00a0Clatskanie averages almost five feet of rain a year. Even so, we lost a lot of site-adapted seedlings because they dried out \u2013 in February and March.\u00a0\u00a0 Soil differences played a role.\u00a0 But where we were able to irrigate a bit the trees thrived.<\/p>\n

Last fall we saw a blurb in the paper about the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS)<\/a> network.\u00a0 When we checked out the CoCoRaHS website there was only one regularly reporting volunteer in Columbia County.\u00a0 There are official weather stations around \u2013 the City of Clatskanie, the Kelso airport, and others, but none seemed to describe what happens right here. \u00a0\u00a0
\nOur local Extension office offered a workshop to help get more people involved in precipitation monitoring.\u00a0 We were intrigued, bought a rain gauge, studied how to mount it to get accurate readings, and started entering the numbers.<\/p>\n

\n \"Recording<\/a>\n
Recording rainfall on the CoCoRaHS website is easy (click graphic to enlarge).<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

So now we are part of a network of rain gauges. \u00a0Our measurement goes into a national database where it is used together with National Weather Service data for everything from everyday weather forecasts and predicting river levels to building computer models and tracking the effects of climate change into the future.<\/p>\n

Now, I learn every day something about what is happening on this place.\u00a0 I know when I need to get out and check on road and ditch erosion.\u00a0\u00a0 I know how much I need to water the driest sites and when. \u00a0And I just like the routine of checking the gauge and knowing exactly how much rain fell here yesterday.<\/p>\n

Being part of a network feels good.\u00a0 Lots of small pieces, connected, become something vast.\u00a0\u00a0 Each bit makes the whole better, across the country.\u00a0 \u00a0It also works locally.\u00a0 \u00a0Looking at the map of daily reports in Columbia County, I can begin to see how the shape of the land changes how much rain falls where. \u00a0CoCoRaHS stations measuring the rain make the pattern.<\/p>\n

\n \"Columbia<\/a>\n
Columbia County CoCoRaHS observations from Dec. 1, 2012 (left) and Dec. 1, 2013 (right). Note how many more stations are on the map! And the range of rainfall reported across the region (click graphic to enlarge).<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Amy just did a follow-up survey of last spring\u2019s workshop participants.\u00a0 Other people who have put in gauges are also having a good time. \u00a0\u00a0They use the information to run a water system, to know when to water newly planted plants, and to estimate when they will be able to get out and work the soil.\u00a0 They like knowing how much rain fell.\u00a0 People enjoy comparing rainfall amounts with neighbors, and looking at the maps and the record of what has happened (one person said, \u201cI think a cloud lives over our house and I get more rainfall than others. But I can see on CoCoRaHS, it\u2019s not true!\u201d).\u00a0 People are learning about the weather by attending webinars and reading the CoCoRaHS newsletter.\u00a0 They watch the progress of storms.\u00a0 Flower and veggie descriptions are read carefully; days are planned better.\u00a0\u00a0 Folks are just more aware of weather conditions, and they enjoy it.<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: this is a follow up to an article I posted about a year ago<\/a>, when we first started getting involved in CoCoRaHS. We’ve been thrilled by the positive reception from participants here in Columbia County, so look for future workshops in other counties in 2014.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Paul Wilson, Columbia County Master Woodland Manager My cats get me up every morning by 7:30.\u00a0 They get fed.\u00a0 \u00a0I check the rain gauge. Then I record the amount and other observations on a website.\u00a0 After more than a year, I have a habit.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s simple, useful, and fun. We\u2019re five years into reforesting… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1783,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[99809,55526,340],"class_list":["post-831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-citizen-science","tag-master-woodland-manager","tag-water"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1783"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":841,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions\/841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}