This article introduces two new tools developed to enhance drought impacts monitoring by citizen scientists. In collaboration with the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC), and the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) network, the Carolinas Integrated Sciences and Assessments (CISA) developed an experimental method of drought monitoring and reporting by citizen scientists. Since 2013, CISA has recruited CoCoRaHS observers in the Carolinas to participate in “condition monitoring,” the regular reporting of local conditions. In contrast to intermittent drought impact reports, condition monitoring creates a baseline for comparison of change through time and improves understanding of the onset, intensification, and recovery of drought. A project evaluation demonstrated the usefulness of the qualitative reports, while also identifying a need for improved accessibility to the information and a quantitative metric to more quickly assess changing conditions. Evaluation findings informed the development of 1) a condition monitoring scale bar for inclusion on the national CoCoRaHS reporting form and 2) a web map to spatially display the condition monitoring reports. CoCoRaHS observers use the scale bar to record their assessment of local conditions, ranging from severely wet to severely dry. Their qualitative reports provide more in-depth information about their selection, noting the effects of weather and climate on the environment and communities in their area. The web map provides an easily accessible format for users such as the State Climate Offices to view the reports, facilitating the incorporation of CoCoRaHS observations into drought monitoring processes.
The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) network is a well-regarded, trusted source of precipitation data. The network’s volunteers also provide weather and climate observations through daily comments, significant weather reports, and condition monitoring reports. Designed to meet a need for local information about drought events and their impacts, “condition monitoring” was initiated as a pilot project in North Carolina and South Carolina in 2013 and launched nationally in October 2016. Volunteers regularly report on how precipitation, or a lack thereof, affects their local environment and community by ranking current conditions on a 7-point scale ranging from severely dry to severely wet and sharing observations through written narratives. This study assesses the usefulness of these reports for drought monitoring and decision making, drawing from the >7,100 reports submitted in the Carolinas between October 2016 and June 2020. This period encompasses the Carolinas’ climate patterns and extreme events such as droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes (“drought-busters”). Three aspects of usefulness were evaluated in the reports: the extent to which volunteers’ assessments of dry-to-wet conditions correspond to objective drought indicators (EDDI, SPI, SPEI) typically employed for monitoring drought; how volunteers’ qualitative observations depict changing conditions, focusing on two flash droughts in 2019; and actual use of the reports by National Weather Service offices, State Climate Offices, U.S. Drought Monitor authors, and drought response committees. Although report content can vary widely, findings show that volunteers’ assessments reflect meteorological conditions and provide on-the-ground details that are being incorporated into existing drought monitoring processes.
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