READS
BE A STORM MONITOR !!!
During one of those nice monsoon storms did you ever want to know just how much rain is falling on your property? Since this is New Mexico, haven't you wondered why it appears to be raining cats and dogs just on the other side of the street and you aren't getting anything? Want to know how much the other guy is getting? Why not join the READS program sponsored by SSCAFCA.
What does it take?
Just pick up the phone and give Mr. Gerhard Schoener a call (892-RAIN) and he will guide you through this easy process.What do I need?
Just some place secure to set the rain gauge that is away from any tall structures so it will not be shaded.What does it cost?
Absolutely nothing. SSCAFCA provides the rain gauge, the labor, the monitoring cards and anything else that is required.What is the benefit?
You will know for sure want amount of precipitation falls on your property plus you get to belong to a select group, THE STORM MONITORS, which will share their information on an annual basis.RAINFALL EVENT AND DATA SYSTEM (READS)
BACKGROUND
In March of 2001, the Southern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control Authority (SSCAFCA) was able to obtain federal funds under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to implement a rainfall event recording system within its jurisdiction. Residents and municipalities within SSCAFCA's jurisdiction were invited to participate in the program either by individually volunteering to be a "Storm Monitor," or providing protected space to install a data logging rain gauge. The collection of data began in earnest in March of 2002 with twenty-one volunteer storm monitors consistently providing monthly data cards and readings being taken from six calibrated data logging rain gauge stations. Fifty-three volunteers currently collect precipitation data for SSCAFCA. On the map below, blue triangles show the distribution of storm monitors throughout SSCAFCA's jurisdiction. Yellow triangles represent new member who signed up in 2009. Light blue circles mark the locations of SSCAFCA's six data logging rain gauges. Three additional data logging rain gauges were installed in 2007 as a result of a cooperative agreement between SSCAFCA and the USGS (orange circles).
click on the map to enlarge
DATA
The data collected by our volunteers allows us to determine how many inches it rained each day at the location of each gauge. With the aid of advanced GIS software, the data from many locations can be interpolated in order to "map storms". The map on the right shows lines of equal precipitation or isohyets, the result of a storm that occurred on July 8, 2006. The storm is remarkable for two different reasons:
- At the center of the storm (dark brown), located at the intersection of highway NM 528 and Corrales Road, more than two inches of rain were recorded. In a region where the average annual rainfall is less than ten inches, two inches in one day is a very large amount.
- The area with more than one inch of rainfall only has a diameter of approximately five miles.
This indicates how much our weather differs on a local scale and why the READS program is so important to us: we need many monitoring stations to account for large local differences.ANNUAL REPORT
Please click on the link below do download the annual report in PDF format. If you are an active storm monitor and did not receive this report via e-mail, please contact Gerhard at or call our office.READS 2008 Annual Report (0.5 MB)
READS Precipitation Summary Card:
Either fill out the online form below, or download the card to print, fill out and manually submit to SSCAFCA
