CoCoRaHS - Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network

Please check your “My Account” page to make sure you have the correct email address. Also, you may want to make sure you haven’t been missing anything (like our 10 for CoCoRaHS Fundraiser emails 😉), so please check your junk/spam folders, and you may want to save @cocorahs as a ‘safe sender’ in your email client!

Our 2025 Ten-For-CoCoRaHS Year-End Fundraiser rolls along during mid-December!
Please consider making a $10 donation. Matching gifts available!

Our annual CoCoRaHS year-end fundraiser is off to a great start. This significant event occurs once a year and accounts for approximately one-third of our operating budget. We thank all of you who have donated in the past and those who might consider making a gift this year for the first time. Our goal is $300,000 by January 11th. It's ambitious, but with your help, we have a good chance to achieve it. We are hoping for many first-time donors this year. CoCoRaHS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit network.

Click here to DONATE

We also have many matching funds still available via "challenge matches" offered by dozens of CoCoRaHS observers who will match your gift up to a certain amount in many areas of the country. The list is available on the donation portal near the bottom of the page. It is a great way to double your gift.

We are offering a special thank-you gift to all who donate $75 or more. This year, it is our CoCoRaHS "snowstorm" t-shirt, and it's rather striking. An indigo t-shirt with streaming white snowflake graphics. A long-sleeved version is available for donations of $125 or more (you can still choose a short-sleeved shirt instead). Shirts are mailed out a few weeks after your donation is received.

Thanks for your consideration and observations throughout the year,
The CoCoRaHS Headquarters Team

Hilberg's Tips -- The Difference between the Rain Gauge Amount and Snow Water Equivalent (SWE)

If you measure snow, there are five (yes, five) potential separate measurements you can make:

We see too many observers copying their precipitation amount into the new SWE field. SWE is a separate measurement! If there has been rain followed by snow, or snow changing to rain, the amount in your rain gauge does not represent the liquid water equivalent of the snow. In windy conditions where gauge catch may be poor, SWE from a snow core will likely be a more accurate measure of precipitation. In such a case, you can enter the SWE as your precipitation with a note in the comments about the situation and what was in your rain gauge. Here is a recent example. I had an inquiry from an observer who found her liquid precipitation in the gauge was 1.03" and that from a snow core from her from her snow board was 1.16". It was windy during the storm, and she wondered if perhaps the wind had prevented all of the snow from making it into her gauge. Yes! The 4-inch gauge is not a great collector of snow in windy situations, so a correctly done snow core is more accurate. In this case, she should enter her SWE as the daily precipitation amount and indicate, in the comments, her gauge amount and that it was likely affected by the winds.

MAIN POINT: If you don't take a snow core and melt and measure the water, then leave "Melted value from the core to the nearest hundredth" as NA.

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Hilberg's Tips -- The Difference between the Rain Gauge Amount and Snow Water Equivalent (SWE)