5" of NEW SNOW

FINALLY--last night--we got some real measurable SNOW. I measured 5" on my CoCoRaHS "snowboard" (actually, just a 1' by 1' piece of wood, painted white). The core taken with the plastic cylinder measured .44" of Snow Water Equivalent (SWE), and the amount of snow that fell into the plastic cylinder, & that was melted into liquid, was .29" SWE.

La Veta Pass east of Monte Vista supposedly received 19" of snow, and Wolf Creek Ski Area received about a foot.

My plug for Community Collaborative Rain, Hail andSnow Network, AKA CoCoRahs; see the program's website at http://www.cocorahs.org/. CoCoRaHs is a volunteer network of citizen weather observers from most states in the country. The mission statement of this non-profit organization is at http://www.cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=mission.

From the website comes this brief description of its primary goal: CoCoRaHS is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow).

I've been taking measurements for the CoCoRaHS program since December of 2005. Every morning at 7:00 I take a brief moment to check for & measure new precipation, whether rain or snow & infrequently hail, and then report the data at the website. The data posted at the website are used by many different entities, from National Weather Service folks to farmers to recreationists. It's interesting to be involved in this effort, with the added benefit of seeing where else in your county or state, or wherever else in the country, other precipation fell.

Nolan Doesken, who I think is the originator of the project, is always interested in new CoCoRaHs volunteers from all of the participating states. If you're interested in volunteering to be a weather observer (it's nearly painless!), go to http://www.cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=contactus and sign up. In the meantime, ENJOY THE SNOW (and next spring/summer's water!).