34 Better Farming | August 2024 Follow us on @BetterFarmingON crops: yield matter$ TRACKING RAINFALL AMOUNTS ‘Not so much about the amount but how quickly we can return to the field.’ By Dale Cowan Tracking rainfall this year has been nearly a full-time job with the frequency of spring and summer storms. Measuring rainfall is a straightforward exercise – you use a rain gauge. Rain gauges are often given away as promotional items at trade shows or by the local retailer. Some farmers purchase automated rain gauges as part of a complete weather station package that may make up a network connected by the Internet or remotely connected to the farm office by cell phones. Data recording is often variable, as some farmers will record every event and others will take a reading and dump the gauge, ready for the next amount. There is another source of rainfall data that may not be as well known: The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, known as CoCoRaHS. The website can be found at cocorahs.org. As explained on their site, “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). “By using low-cost measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an interactive website, our aim is to provide the highest quality data for natural resource, education and research applications.” I have first-hand knowledge of this organization. In 2017 we purchased 200 of the special CoCoRaHS rain gauges at $70 each at the time and distributed them to customers throughout our trading area. The proviso for receiving a free rain gauge was that one would need to download the CoCoRaHS app, geolocate the rain gauge, and post rainfall events as they happened at the same time each morning, and even on days of no rainfall, to open the app and record zero. I know the rain gauges are out there, however not everyone complied with downloading the app, geolocating the gauge, and recording rainfall amounts. The local nature of collecting rainfall adds granularity to weather data. It’s particularly useful for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to assess major storm events and to understand risks from and damages by intense storms. Insurance companies also use weather in their risk models when One of the rain gauges given to farmers in 2017 as an incentive to download the CoCoRaHS app and post rainfall events in their area. Dale Cowan photo
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