NIDIS Newsletter Features CISA-CoCoRaHS Research

The Spring 2014 edition of "Dry Times", a newsletter published by the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), features an article about the CISA-CoCoRaHS project.  It describes the project and its purpose along with other research CISA is conducting to help NIDIS understand how drought affects South Carolina's coastal ecosystems and socioeconomic systems. The newsletter also includes information about drought impacts across the U.S. and the research directed by Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments teams (RISAs) to better understand them.   You can view the newsletter here.  The article about CISA's parternship with CoCoRaHS is on page 11.

Condition Monitoring Star of the Week - Polk County, NC

Our Condition Monitoring Star of the Week goes to CoCoRaHS observer with station number, NC-PK-16.  We chose this one because it portrays local moisture conditions very well, their affect on plants and how the observer responded. On April 27th, the observer made the following report.

Currently there seems to be no drought. Soil is moist in the first few inches of depth, with the top first quarter-inch being dry, except under mulch and low-growing plants. There are no standing pools of water on the property. We have had no need to water or irrigate any plants, except those we have just planted or transplanted. More trees have leaves from opening buds.

Great job NC-PK-16!  

Condition Monitoring Star of the Week - York County, SC

Our Condition Monitoring Star of the Week is an observer in York County, SC who posted the following report on April 20th. This great report noted how weather produced multiple affects in their community.  Great job!

Categories: Plants & Wildlife, Agriculture, Tourism & Recreation

3.93 inches in the past 10 days. Plants are all lush and green. Garden soil is too soggy for planting this weekend. Lake Wylie appears to be at full capacity. Anglers and boaters were out in large numbers today following two days of nearly wash out conditions.

Condition Monitoring Star of the Week - Craven County, NC, April 14th

We are so AMAZED at how great North Carolina and South Carolina condition monitoring reports have become. The following condition monitoring from Craven County, North Carolina shows how weather has affected multiple sectors of the community.  Categories include Agriculture, Business & Industry, Plants & Wildlife, Society & Public Health and Tourism & Recreation.  That is why this report is our Star of the Week!

Three days of windy, cooler, rainy weather, followed by windy, dry, sunny. Farmers have broken ground, but are still not planting. Fertilizers and herbicides have been applied. Winter Wheat is now tall enough to blow in waves. Egrets have had their young. Pine pollen was very high. Following the rains, it looked like paint floating on the water in the ditches and culverts; everywhere else it coated anything that wasn't moving with a thick layer of yellow dust. 

Pear and plum trees have finished their blooms and are leafed out, cherries, apples, dogwoods and azaleas just starting to bloom. Asparagus has broken through and is shooting up stalks. The cooler weather crops like lettuce, spinach, and peas - although growing quickly, are suffering a bit from the quick switch to high (80s ) temperatures and wind. Folks are holding off planting their vegetable gardens in earnest due to anticipated cold snap this coming week. Strawberries and Blueberries are starting to yield the tiny beginnings of fruit. Raspberries are just starting to show the first signs of buds. 

 Canary finches have now returned, along with chick-a-dees, blue birds, and our annual nesting geese pair. Turkey hunting season opened, but they are smart and now we haven't been seeing them as often as before. Many local municipalities have had spring festivals which have been a great success because the weather has been so nice for crowds to be out of doors. Folks have their boats out on the rivers, enjoying especially sailing for the latter part of the week.

Signs of Spring

Stewart Futrell

Stewart Futrell

That’s right folks, despite the abnormally wet and cold winter we’ve experienced in the Carolinas, the signs of spring are all around us! Paying homage to the first day of spring, CoCoRaHS member Stewart Futrell shared these beautiful pictures of the blooming Daffodils and Saucer Magnolia (tulip tree) in his yard. As Stewart has captured here, the signs of spring foretell of the warming weather to come! These photos also are a great reminder to submit condition monitoring reports of your local area. Submitting regular reports of your area is a great way to monitoring local conditions under all types of weather scenarios. With the wet winter we’ve experienced here in the Carolinas, condition monitoring reports help us determine what conditions are like when we receive adequate precipitation, to compare against those periods when precipitation is not as plentiful.  As the flowers continue to bloom and the trees emerge from dormancy, keep those condition monitoring reports coming in. And don’t forget to take some time to enjoy the many signs of spring around us!

New CoCoRaHS condition monitoring recruits

We want to welcome North Carolina CoCoRaHS observers to the CISA and CoCoRaHS condition monitoring project! The volunteers are joining a great group of observers from South Carolina who have shown an amazing level of dedication to drought impacts research and we are truly grateful. We are excited about our growing community.

And speaking of a growing community...March 1st marked the beginning of the annual CoCoRaHS March Madness competition between states to see how many new observers we can recruit this month. If each existing volunteer could recruit just one person to become an observer, it would drastically increase coverage of CoCoRaHS stations throughout the U.S. leading to better localized precipitation data around the country.

We would like to encourage those involved in condition monitoring in the Carolinas to also mention their work with CISA to any new recruits. When you recruit a friend or family member to become a CoCoRaHS observer, talk to them about submitting condition monitoring reports as well as daily precipitation measurements. Please have any new recruits contact us with questions or if they would like to learn more about the CoCoRaHS condition monitoring project. More information about March Madness can be found here.

A picture - never seen before and never the same again

A couple of weeks ago, during Nature Notes, Rudy Mancke read from Beauty by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and reminded me of the condition monitoring reports you all are submitting. 

The lines he read were, "The inhabitants of cities suppose that the country landscape is pleasant only half the year. I please myself with the graces of the wintry scenery, and believe that we are as much touched by it as by the genial influences of summer. To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again."

The coming weeks will see a great amount of change as we shift from Winter to Spring. With the warmer temperatures this past week, I've noticed that the tulip trees on campus here at USC in Columbia, SC are starting to bloom and daffodils are popping up everywhere around town. With the seasonal shift to Spring, I am sure that we will receive many wonderful condition monitoring reports from you about all of the changes you see.  We will look forward to highlighting the observations you share. Thank you for your efforts!