CoCoRaHS Observers Contribute to “Condition Monitoring” in the Carolinas: A New Initiative Addresses Needs for Drought Impacts Information

Abstract

This article introduces two new tools developed to enhance drought impacts monitoring by citizen scientists. In collaboration with the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC), and the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) network, the Carolinas Integrated Sciences and Assessments (CISA) developed an experimental method of drought monitoring and reporting by citizen scientists. Since 2013, CISA has recruited CoCoRaHS observers in the Carolinas to participate in “condition monitoring,” the regular reporting of local conditions. In contrast to intermittent drought impact reports, condition monitoring creates a baseline for comparison of change through time and improves understanding of the onset, intensification, and recovery of drought. A project evaluation demonstrated the usefulness of the qualitative reports, while also identifying a need for improved accessibility to the information and a quantitative metric to more quickly assess changing conditions. Evaluation findings informed the development of 1) a condition monitoring scale bar for inclusion on the national CoCoRaHS reporting form and 2) a web map to spatially display the condition monitoring reports. CoCoRaHS observers use the scale bar to record their assessment of local conditions, ranging from severely wet to severely dry. Their qualitative reports provide more in-depth information about their selection, noting the effects of weather and climate on the environment and communities in their area. The web map provides an easily accessible format for users such as the State Climate Offices to view the reports, facilitating the incorporation of CoCoRaHS observations into drought monitoring processes.

How well do meteorological indicators represent agricultural and forest drought across Europe?

“…Meteorological indicators such as the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) (McKee et al 1993) are widely used in these systems. Stakeholder participation has started a process to improve drought information systems to better consider drought impacts and provide possibilities to downscale to local conditions (Collins et al 2016, Lackstrom et al 2017. Meteorological drought does not necessarily equate to agricultural drought, particularly at broad scales, given differences in drought susceptibility (e.g.…”

Linking Drought Impacts to Drought Severity at the State Level

“…Linking drought impact information to drought monitoring has long been cited as a need in the drought community (Western Governors Association 2004;Hayes et al 2011;Meadow et al 2013;Lackstrom et al 2017). By associating qualitative descriptions of drought impacts with levels of drought, a more complete characterization of drought can be formed to improve drought planning, reporting, and early warning tools.…”

How useful are crowdsourced air temperature observations? An assessment of Netatmo stations and quality control schemes over the United Kingdom

“…Crowdsourcing has grown in popularity over the last decade as a method to utilize small efforts from many people or devices and combine them into a useful output (Chapman et al, 2017; Elmore et al, 2014; Hawkins et al, 2019; Lackstrom et al, 2017). Thousands of crowdsourced observations are made every day from a wide range of automatic weather stations globally, and these observations are not yet widely utilized by meteorological agencies to forecast the weather.…”