In August 2024, I spent fifty dollars and thirty minutes with my grandfather to erect a 4-inch manual rain gauge in my backyard. That night, I opened an account with CoCoRaHS, the Community Collaborative Rain, Snow, and Hail Network. The following morning, I made my first report: 0.00 inches of precipitation at 7:00am sharp.

Like any good countrywoman, my day doesn’t start until I check the National Weather Service (NWS) weather report. In college, I spent a lot of time thinking about water, and particularly the water in local streams after a rain event. One of my favorite semesters was the fall I took “Hydrogeology” and “Natural Disasters.” In one class, I learned about how soil and rock interact with water, and in the other, I learned about how people interact with water in hazardous events.

Not to say I didn’t already have a passing interest in weather- I’ve always paid special attention to our climactic conditions in my diaries and nature journal. I’ve even gone as far to watch the official SKYWARN training videos on Youtube and have been on the waitlist for live virtual training for some time. I can’t help but stay alert for hazardous weather reports, waiting with bated breath to learn if a tornado watch was boosted to a tornado warning. Becoming a gauger for CoCoRaHS was simply a natural progression.

With my station now established, I became obsessed with keeping my streak, the number of days in a row I submitted a precipitation report. My low number in the hundreds is nothing compared to other gaugers across the United States. In the CoCoRaHS Facebook group, milestones like five, ten, and fifteen years of daily precipitation reports are celebrated, often ending up with many comments and hundreds of likes. Precipitation gauging can be a bit like an extreme sport- some will check their gauge in all weather and conditions, never missing a single day. In late September 2024, one gauger was reporting daily from his home in North Carolina- right up until the morning hurricane struck and washed his gauge away.

CoCoRaHS is not a new organization. Started by the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University in 1998, the goal was to collect daily precipitation data in the state. A few years later, Wyoming joined, quickly followed by Kansas. By 2013, all fifty states in the US had precipitation stations. In the middle of the US expansion, Canada and Puerto Rico joined, followed by the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, and Guam. Pennsylvania boasts several hundred stations, with 14 in Centre County. So far, during this year’s Rain Gauge Rally, 573 new stations have opened.

These days, CoCoRaHS does much more than collect precipitation data from gaugers like me. Federal agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) utilize CoCoRaHS data to verify the models created by meteorologists. Other agencies, like the US Department of the Interior, use the data to make land management and conservation decisions. Across the American West, regional agencies can make drought condition determinations and adjust the consumption of water, all to better conserve our shared resources.

I am fascinated by the precipitation data collected and shared by CoCoRaHS. I feel as if I am personally tracking changes in weather patterns due to climate disruption. Even at my own station, I can identify the subtle shifts in weather patterns: less frequent, but more severe snowstorms and hard, heavy rains first come to mind. Right now, as I am sweating, typing, and listening to the rain, I recall the long, cool wet June days of my childhood and know that they are disappearing.

In the face of what feels like an uncontrollable situation, gauging has helped me feel more involved in the fight against human-induced climate changes to our Earth. As members of this online community, we are called to bear witness to the raw power of rain, snow, and hail. The forces that have shaped our planet throughout the eons are adjusting, gradually adapting to the world humanity has created.

All of this sounds melodramatic. Yet, like with nature journaling, slowing down to observe and record the world brings all of nature’s connections to life. Even now, I’m drawing conclusions about what I’ll see in my outdoor adventures based upon the weather happening in the moment. For example, after last week’s soft but steady rainstorm, our native violets erupted into a thick carpet of purple flowers. A fine drizzle this evening has brought out more frogs along Lick Run, drowning out the sounds of my keyboard.

I know I’m not the only person that feels this way. The thousands of gaugers in CoCoRaHS feel this way, too. After storms, there’s always a flurry of rainbow pictures posted to the Facebook group. The rain doesn’t fall the same on all, but a rainbow universally brings joy. They are promises of beauty and hope in our ever-changing world, noticed first by those with a passion for precipitation.