July 9, 2007 by jon.

  Now that I got your attention…I did get a job offer, or actually, I was asked to do a volunteer position.  Anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time knows I get a kick out of weather and report daily precip to a site called CoCoRaHS.  Well, they asked me if I would be the Kane County Coordinator for volunteers.  I guess there is getting to be enough volunteers that this county needs someone to help out.

  I said not right now.  I have to get through a few things at work and some travel and if they still needed help after summer was over, I’d be glad to step in.  I was kind of surprised with Tim (Illinois State Coordinator) said they would wait.  I guess they’re not as hard up as I thought. 

   Oh, here is a good article on how CoCoRahs got it’s start.  I remember the Ft. Collins flood that they are talking about.  Matter of fact, the bookstore I was working at was contacted by the CSU Library to help replace some damaged books.  Kind of brings this to home for me as I went to school in Ft. Collins and the flood area was near there.  Kind of neat to be able to volunteer on something now that might help give warning to an event like that again.

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March 3, 2007 by jon.

Not quite watching grass grow, but close. 

Actually, the Phenological Network tracks when plants bloom and other Phenological event across the country.  Like CoCoRaHS, they have volunteers who input data into a web site.  If watching plants is more your thing as opposed to weather, you might want to check this out.

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February 28, 2007 by jon.

  No not THAT March Madness.  This one has to do with CoCoRahs.  Please see the below email from Nolan Doesken, the founder of CoCoRaHS.  Every March they have a drive to sign up as many volunteers as possible.  They do an informal competition between the states.

  If you are interested at all in weather, I strongly suggest checking this out.  This is also a great thing for teacher and scouting groups to get involved in.

From: Nolan Doesken [mailto:nolan@atmos.colostate.edu] Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 12:40 AMTo: CoCoRaHS Mailing List

Two more states join the CoCoRaHS team on March 1. That also marks the beginning of our annual “March Madness” competition. With 17 states on board, we expect lively competition this year to see which state can sign up the most new volunteers. Our newest states — Nevada and Wisconsin — will be duking it out, but don’t be surprised to see Illinois, Indiana and Montana making a run for it. And what about all of us here in Colorado?I’m sure we haven’t exhausted the pool of potential weather observers.

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February 27, 2007 by jon.

Our family went to training last night for CoCoRaHS at the local Illinois Extension office.  While I have had the training before in Colorado, Kala and the kids did not.  This was good for them to be able to see why I am taking all of the various measurements and where they are posted.

If you have any interest in the weather, I strongly suggest signing up for this network.  They have expanded into many states including Colorado, Illinois and soon into Wisconsin.

Check it out
CoCoRaHS - Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network

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February 19, 2007 by jon.

I was interviewed for an article today on the CoCoRaHS network.  The article appeared in the Lisle edition of the Daily Herald.  The article looks pretty good excpet they quoted me as saying we record to the Thousandth of an in rather than Hundredth.  Don’t remember saying that, but it’s a small error.

Again, I will urge anyone who has even a passing interest in weather to sign up for CoCoRaHS.

Here is the article:  Daily Herald | DuPage County

And here is the link to CoCoRaHS

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December 21, 2006 by jon.

Wish I was in Denver.  Take a look at the link below.  If it doesn’t bring up Colorado, select it from the Drop down.  Also select the date 12/21 and select New Snow.

Some places up to 40 inches.
CoCoRaHS - Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network

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December 1, 2006 by jon.

  We had a snowstorm last night that was the biggest since we moved here.  Of course, 8 inches isn’t really much to talk about, but this town thinks it’s big.  Everything was shut down for at least half of the day.

  The kids didn’t have school and I didn’t go in so we went sledding and they spent a good part of the day outside.  I can’t tell you how happy they were to have snow.  We really didn’t have any snowstorms last year that produced enough snow to sled so today was a treat. 

  Since we are now on CoCoRaHS, you can see how much we get in precipitation and snow at:

http://www.cocorahs.org/Maps/ViewMap.aspx?type=stations

  I am Kane County #1 in Illinois.  I found out today that they signed up 50 volunteers in Illinois in one day!  This thing is really taking off.

   Let’s bring on more snow!

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November 19, 2006 by jon.

We changed our station name with CoCoRaHS.  We no longer are JF38 but are now IL-KN-1.  Started posting measurements on Friday.  Good stuff.  We were the first to sign up in Kane County and the third or 4th in the state.  I like the new website CoCoRaHS has compared to when I was volunteering in Colorado.  Much easier to post and view data.

Check out the site and sign up if you are interested in weather.

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November 16, 2006 by jon.

CoCoRaHS is coming to Illinois!  We were pare of this in Colorado and are excited about being a part of it in Illinois now.

This is a rain and hail study where you take daily measurements of the precipitation and report on any hail.  I look forward to seeing how the rain here in Illinois is different from Colorado.

Check out the below link and sign up yourself if you are interested!

CoCoRaHS - Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network

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