The province will support a volunteer-based snow and rainfall monitoring network called the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) in Manitoba, which will provide more accurate and timely weather data to enhance flood forecasting. This announcement was made by Premier Greg Selinger.
“Manitoba is always looking for ways to improve flood forecasting and monitoring so this is a good investment leading to improved precipitation and snowpack monitoring,” said Selinger. “Flood forecasting is a difficult task which requires sufficient, accurate and timely data, and we invite volunteers to join the enhanced high-density precipitation and snowfall observation network.”
Volunteers take daily measurements of rain, hail and snow, and then report the readings to the CoCoRaHS website. The entire volunteer network’s daily observations are instantly available for public and government viewing and use. The volunteer system in Manitoba will support up to 200 sites in 2012, providing daily measurements of rain, snowfall and equivalent water content of the snow to be shared through the existing CoCoRaHS network, which extends to all 50 U.S. states and has over 15,000 American volunteer observers.
The data is used in a variety of ways by weather and water-management specialists, emergency managers, utilities, mosquito-control areas and farmers. CoCoRaHS originated with the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University in 1998 following a record-breaking flood at Fort Collins. The Canadian network was initiated in Manitoba in December 2011. The province is encouraging other provinces to participate in this grassroots program, said Selinger.
The province will provide just over $165,000 to operate and install software, website upgrades and weather monitoring equipment for up to five years, the premier added. A licence and data-acquisition agreement is in place with the WeatherFarm team, the Canadian national co-ordinator for CoCoRaHS in collaboration with Earth Networks.
“This is a project in which anyone interested in improved weather information can participate,” said Selinger. “We encourage Manitoba’s farming community to join the network, as they are the stewards of a large portion of Manitoba land and deal with the impact of weather every day.”
Further information including details about volunteering is available at www.cocorahs.org/Canada.aspx.
