Mountain Rain or Snow is a citizen science project devoted to better observing precipitation phase (i.e., rain, snow, or mixed) at the land surface. Led by a group of researchers from Lynker, the Desert Research Institute, and the University of Nevada, Reno, we're powered by hundreds of volunteers who report precipitation phase when the weather outside is frightful.
We use these crowdsourced data on precipitation phase to evaluate how well hydrologic models, gridded weather products, and earth-observing satellites estimate rain versus snow. If you're interested, check out the analysis section of this repo for a quick look at the data.
We're always looking for more reports of rain, snow, and mixed precipitation. During the 2021–2022 field season we'll be focusing on gathering observations from the Sierra Nevada (California and Nevada), Cascades (Oregon and Washington), Rocky Mountains (Colorado), and Adirondacks and Appalachians of New York and New England. To subscribe to text message alerts with instructions on how to contribute, please subscribe using one of our regional keywords:
- For the Northeastern US, text NorEaster to 855-909-0798
- For California and Nevada, text Winter to 855-909-0798
- For Colorado, text CORainSnow to 855-909-0798
- For Oregon, text OregonRainORSnow to 855-909-0798
Click HERE to access the app and start submitting observations when it's precipitating!
More information on our work can be found at the links below:
- The Mountain Rain or Snow project website
- A peer-reviewed publication on our first year of data and analysis (Arienzo et al., 2021)
- A blog post on why accurately predicting rain versus snow matters
- A 2020 report on our data (2021 report coming soon!)
We started this work in 2019 as Tahoe Rain or Snow thanks to funding from the NASA Nevada EPSCoR Program. In 2021, we received funding to continue and expand the project with an award from the NASA ROSES Citizen Science for Earth Systems Program.
None of this would be possible without the dedication of tireless volunteers. Thank you!
