National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

The NWS forecast office in Norman and the Arkansas-Red Basin River Forecast Center (ABRFC) in Tulsa need YOUR help reporting rain, hail, and snow! If you live in one of these Oklahoma counties: Atoka, Coal, Dewey, Harper, Jefferson, Johnston or Major, or in one these Texas counties: Archer, Foard  or Hardeman, you could get a FREE rain gauge by volunteering to be a Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow (CoCoRaHS) observer! We would like to have an observer in each of these counties, so we are giving away one standard rain gauge per county for a willing volunteer! If you would like to be considered for a rain gauge, please email sr-oun.spotter@noaa.gov by April 30, 2012 with:

• your name,
• county,
• and a short explanation of why you would like to be a CoCoRaHS observer.

The NWS staff at the Norman Weather Forecast Office (WFO) and ABRFC will choose one observer from each of the 10 counties on May 1, 2012. The CoCoRaHS Network is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map rain, hail, and snow. Observers provide a daily measurement of precipitation each morning by entering their amount on the CoCoRaHS web site. Your observations play a crucial role in NWS Norman's forecasting and warning operations and the ABRFC’s river forecasting program. Those interested from other counties can also sign up to be CoCoRaHS observers! For more information about the CoCoRaHS Network, visit www.cocorahs.org. For more information regarding this opportunity, please email sr-oun.spotter@noaa.gov.