Author Topic: What if my wife tells me it snowed....  (Read 1023 times)

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Offline ggsteve

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What if my wife tells me it snowed....
« on: January 17, 2015, 07:36:48 AM »
I know that if I detect even one drop of rain or snowflake that I am supposed to report a trace of precipitation for the day.  What if I am not home, but my wife sees the flurries?  Or in another hypothetical, I see flurries where I work six miles from my station, and the radar clearly shows the band of snow over my home location as well.  Assuming that there is no evidence of precipitation in my rain gauge after this, should I report something?

Offline miraculon

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Re: What if my wife tells me it snowed....
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2015, 09:15:29 AM »
In my opinion, I would say that your wife's input is perfectly valid and report it as the "trace". Perhaps you could add that your spouse actually observed the snowflakes in the comments on CoCoRaHS.

However, one of the points of CoCoRaHS is "ground truth". If you report a trace based on radar, NWS already knows the radar signature but they are looking for confirmation. I think that reporting the trace without human eyeballs being involved would not be correct.

Greg H.


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Offline chief-david

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Re: What if my wife tells me it snowed....
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2015, 09:36:47 AM »
I would say you need to learn how to say  "Yes Dear"

Remember, if a husband talks and his wife is not around to hear it, is he still wrong?



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Offline floodcaster

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Re: What if my wife tells me it snowed....
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2015, 10:59:19 AM »
I know that if I detect even one drop of rain or snowflake that I am supposed to report a trace of precipitation for the day.  What if I am not home, but my wife sees the flurries?  Or in another hypothetical, I see flurries where I work six miles from my station, and the radar clearly shows the band of snow over my home location as well.  Assuming that there is no evidence of precipitation in my rain gauge after this, should I report something?

If your spouse (or next-door neighbor) is kind enough to relay what occurred when you were gone, that is perfectly acceptable. This also applies for hail (or sprinkles). However as mentioned, I would not use radar or a location different from your own, although you can add that in your observer notes.
Bill


Offline ggsteve

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Re: What if my wife tells me it snowed....
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2015, 11:05:28 AM »
Thanks, that's what I thought.  I have it on good authority that my wife saw snow flurries whilst cross country skiing in the back yard yesterday, so I have updated this morning's report.