Report-back:
The Impact of Our Observers 

This successful project went from "small" to "big" with your help. You joined over 1,100 other observers to contribute to making this science possible. 

Community observers shared over 15,000 reports of rain, snow, or mixed precipitation with us last winter season! This is a sixfold increase over the previous season, when the project was focused on just one region. The heatmap shows the geographic distribution of the observations that were submitted. Reds and oranges indicate the highest density of observations, followed by yellow, blue, and purple. Sometimes scientists group these areas into “ecoregions” with hydroclimatic similarities, and there were 35 ecoregions represented in last year’s dataset! 

As of the end of last season, our largest regional network was the Northeast with 318 observers, followed by the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with 310 observers, the Sierra Nevada with 219 observers, and the Cascade Mountains with 30 observers. Numerous dedicated people also send observations from outside one of these regions as well, as you can see from the heatmap. 

You do high quality work. In the regions of focus, 96% of the observations submitted passed our rigorous quality control procedures.

With your help, our project team has achieved a lot in the last year!

• 10 news articles featuring the project

• 10 community presentations reaching nearly 400 people

• 5 presentations at international academic conferences

• 2 scientific manuscripts in preparation

• $1.14 in additional funding from NASA to support 12 scientists and students to drive this research forward