Are you interested in actually participating in the science? Well, citizen science may just be for you! Citizen science is a form of open collaboration in which anyone can take part in the scientific process to address real-world problems. You can help by taking real-time weather observations, alerting officials about severe or winter weather occurring where you are and contributing to NOAA research using an app on your phone. Citizen science involves everyday people and plays a vital role in protecting lives and property.
A citizen science project, such as the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS), can involve hundreds or even millions of people collaborating towards a common goal. One of the largest citizen science projects relating to weather, CoCoRaHS, (www.cocorahs.org/) is a nationwide community-based network of volunteers who measure and help map precipitation like rain, hail and snow. There are over currently over 12,000 volunteers nationwide, and their precipitation reports are used by many organizations interested in weather and climate conditions. NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory has a similar program, the Meteorological Phenomena Identification Near the Ground (mPING), (https://mping.nssl.noaa.gov/), where you can report the type of precipitation you are experiencing at any given time or location. mPING volunteers can spend a little or a lot of time making and recording ground truth observations using the mPING project website or mobile phone app.
Another way you could become a citizen scientist is through the National Weather Service Cooperative Observer Program (www.nws.noaa.gov/om/coop/). This program consists of over 8,700 volunteers who take observations where they live, work and play. The NWS depends on these volunteers who are committed to taking observations at the same location for a long period of time. Some of these volunteers have been taking observations for over 50 years. NWS provides the training, equipment and maintenance; you provide daily data. Data from the program supports warnings and forecasts and helps build a long-term weather history for an area. This program has existed since 1890 and is one of the few programs that measures snowfall and its water equivalent.
All these citizen science efforts are already advancing our understanding of weather and climate while providing fun and educational opportunities for everyone to participate in the process of scientific discovery.
We invite you to check out these and other opportunities and try your hand at citizen science
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