The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources is seeking weather observers across the state to win the Community Collaborative, Rain, Hail and Snow Network competition. Most people know it by CoCoRaHS.
According to Assistant Climatologist for the SCDNR, Melissa Griffin, It was created to give individuals the opportunity to track rain and weather patterns in their communities.
“It is a really great and unique program for people to get in touch with what is going on in their backyards and helping emergency management, their national weather service, or their local meteorologists understand where it may have rained, or where it may have snowed, ” Griffin said.
The SCDNR has recruited weather observers all throughout the state for CoCoRaHS since 2008.
During the month of March, states compete to see who can gather the most observers during those 31 days. The state that wins get the CoCoRaHS trophy.
South Carolina won the competition last year with 173 observers. This year, Griffin hopes they can get 200 people to sign up. She believes people, who spend long hours outdoors, would enjoy capturing the weather in their area.
Tim and Lisa King from Forest Lake Greenhouses in Florence said they pay close attention to the weather due to gardening.
“There’s always something you can do to make the environment better no matter what the weather conditions are,” Lisa said. “A plant is a living thing, things die, but you do certainly try to minimize that risk,” Tim added.
Observers in South Carolina helped track the flooding events from Hurricane Florence and Tropical Storm Florence in 2015. As of now, there are 16 observers in Horry County and 11 in the Pee Dee.
Individuals interested in helping South Carolina win the competition or who want to track the weather can sign up on the CoCoRaHS website.
