I'm Now A CoCoRaHS Volunteer

I grew up in Sacramento, California and the weather seemed like a pretty consistent event. If it was raining at my house it was guaranteed to be raining all over Sacramento and I assumed it was raining similar amounts. This was the days before satellite assisted weather reporting and so I really knew nothing about weather patterns. I only knew it rained all winter and was sunny all summer. That was the reality for all of us children. When I was in the fifth grade my teacher put up a bulletin board that read “April Showers Bring May Flowers”. One boy voiced what we were all thinking, “how dumb is that, everyone knows it doesn’t rain in April”. Well, it almost never rains in April in Sacramento, but I would learn later in life that for much of the country the weather is not so predictable.

I now live in Texas where it can rain all year or not rain all year. It can be raining on one side of the house and sunny on the other side of the house. I once was with a friend driving by the entrance to the San Antonio Airport. It was coming down so hard we could barely see out the window. It was one nasty storm. I couldn’t wait for that night’s weather report to learn how much rain we got. I just knew it had to be several inches. So when the weather man reported we had received no rain at the airport, not even a trace, I couldn’t believe my ears. The freeway I had been on was less than a mile from the weather collecting data station but not a drop had fallen there. That is Texas for you. It is also the reality for many people across the country.

Recently I learned about CoCoRaHS, which is short for Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network. CoCoRaHS is “volunteers working together to measure precipitation across the nation.” CoCoRaHS is free to join. All one needs is an official rain gauge and the willingness to daily record your rain/snow totals when home.

This morning with the help of the County CoCoRaHS Coordinator and her husband, my official rain gauge was installed. They also took a GPS reading of my location, since the map software CoCoRaHS uses put me in the middle of the highway. Anyone can visit the site and check in to see how much rain has fallen in different areas. For instance I am in Edwards County. My location is TX-ED-22. I am the 22nd person to volunteer in Edwards County, but I am aware of a few more people who will soon be joining the force.

If you want to find out where in your own county volunteers are, you can simply go to the CoCoRaHS web site and click on the map to find your own county. Then see where totals have been reported. And if while there you want to know how much rain has been arriving at AOCCCI, click on “MAP” on the top menu bar, then “Station Number Maps”, then under “Map Location” choose Texas and Edwards county Once the map pops up just look for station TX-ED-22. Once you know where AOCCCI is located on the map, under “Map Type” you can select “precipitations” from the drop down menu. There you will get a map showing the rain totals for all the stations in Edwards County who reported that day. You can also change the date to see what the totals were for any date in the past.

If as you have been reading the thought has crossed your mind that this sounds like fun, then may I suggest that you visit the CoCoRaHS web site and learn more about it. It really does not matter if you live in the country or a large city, the more people recording their precipitation totals, the better. This is more than just a fun hobby. This information is being used by climatologists, hydrologists, emergency managers, engineers, and more. It could even save lives. So if you think this is something you would like to do, then check it out.

And finally, I took some time this afternoon and looked up Sacramento County in California, where I grew up. It rained a few days ago and there were lots of people reporting rain totals. As a child I might have thought everyone was receiving the exact same amount of rain every day, but one look at that map told a different story.

Feasting on Rain

The past week has been a very soggy week. In case you are unaware of Texas weather, south and west Texas got hit hard by rainfall. When it comes to rain, in South Texas it is either feast or famine.

For the past couple years it was famine, one of the worst doubts in recorded history, making Texas a dry, hot and dusty place. Last summer in San Antonio, every high temperature record was broken and then broken again. In fact every day that summer we broke between one to three records as we reached 100f (38c) or above day after day. So when the rains began to come, everyone in Texas began to praise God.

This past week it has been feast. The first three days I saw drizzle to light rain, about 0.20 inch rain daily. Then on Thursday I saw down pours that were unbelievable. At times I could not even see out my windows as they were covered in sheets of water. That evening the rain subsided again into light rain so I trudged through the standing water to my rain gauge to see just how much rain had fallen that day. My gauge only holds 6 inches and it was all the way to the brim. Friday I would see another 1.60 of rain and Saturday a mere 0.25 inches of rain.

This land is very rocky and so it takes awhile for the rain to seep into the ground. As I look out the windows day after day I have felt like I am living in a swamp. I can see pools of water out every window. I literally am living in a marsh right now. Because of all the water I am stuck inside and suffering from a severe case of cabin fever. I want nothing more than to get outside and enjoy nature while I do some outside work. But right now the land is to wet for any outdoor activities.

When I first purchased this property I had plenty of ideas of what I could do to quickly make it a viable place for people in need to come live. But during the past couple months I have realized those first ideas are not practical. At first I thought about a campsite, and though I will allow folks to camp here until better accommodations can be built, this land is very windy. I have lived in windier places but when the wind picks up I think trying to live in a tent would be uncomfortable. Living in a car would be better. Another problem with a camp ground is this land is rocky. Rocks are everywhere and many of the rocks cannot be moved. So, if people want to camp out on the land it will be permitted, but I do not think very comfortable.

Then I got over 6 inches of rain on Wednesday. During the times I was able to look outside the windows I noticed the rain seemed to flow from the north side of the house towards the south side. Though it has not rained today (Sunday) the south side is still full of water while on the other sides of the house the water has soaked into the ground and I just see mud. But on the south side I still see pools of water. This is valuable information. While most of the 20 acres are to the west of the house, I now know how the land flows by the house. It is also apparent to me that all buildings need to be built off the ground. Due to the feast/famine nature of rain around here, placing buildings on cement slabs is dumb. All buildings need to be off the ground so when heavy rains come, the buildings won’t flood.

I admit I am tired of the rain. The forecasters say we should have one more dry day and then more rain is due. Today I learned I had more rain than anyone else I know at church. Most of them got 3 to 4 inches, but one guy saw none. So I am happy to share with him. May God move next week’s rain clouds onto his property. But whatever happens next week with the rain, no matter how bad my cabin fever gets, this past week of rain has given me valuable insight into the land I now live on and is the home of AOCCCI.