Patriots Day . . . Let's celebrate all week long! — CoCoRaHS Reports

Matt Spies, our Connecticut state CoCoRaHS coordinator, wrote this rousing piece about Patriots Day and CoCoRaHS a few years ago, which we share annually during this week.

”Patriots Day is a state holiday in several New England states and North Dakota, as it commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord. It typically occurs on the 3rd Monday in April, this year on Monday, April 20th. Back in 1775, 251 years ago, Robert Newman lit two lanterns and climbed 154 steps to place them in the belfry of the Old North Church. Paul Revere and William Dawes took separate routes as they rode on horseback to warn of the British advance.

A year later, Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. John Hancock signed his name to the Declaration so large that King George would have little difficulty seeing it without his spectacles.

Jefferson was a weather buff. He carried a thermometer with him to Philadelphia and recorded the temperature several times a day.

As CoCoRaHS observers, we do not have lanterns, horses, or large signatures. Our records may not be as meticulous as Jefferson’s, although Jefferson would be impressed with our interactive map, Water Year Summaries, and our Data Explorer (DEx).

Like the Patriots during our American Revolution, we are all volunteers bound together by a common cause. We are part of a citizen-science project that warns others in real time with Significant Weather Reports and Hail Reports. No lanterns to light or 154 steps to climb.

We measure and report rain, hail, and snow daily online for many to see and use. No need to get on horseback to get the word out or to send two riders to make certain of it.

We can make relevant and insightful comments with any of our reports and with our new Condition Monitoring Reports so that any King, Drought Monitor, River or Weather Forecaster can see and read easily, probably without wearing their spectacles!

With whatever Patriot in mind that best fits our many personalities, we press or click “Submit” on our reports with pride in our Patriot past.”

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CoCoRaHS Rain Gauge Rally 2026 is bringing many new observers into the CoCoRaHS family this month! Please recruit a new observer in your state/country/commonwealth during the month of April.
 

The "CoCoRaHS Rain Gauge Rally 2026" (a new month in 2026) is our friendly annual recruiting competition across the CoCoRaHS network to see how many new volunteer observers we can recruit in April.

We have a simple challenge for everyone out there during April: "Would you please take a moment to recommend the program to at least one friend or relative and encourage them to sign up to be a volunteer observer?" That's it, just one (OK, two or three if you are really ambitious). If just half of our 27,000 current volunteers gave this a shot, we could really see the density of our coverage improve. 

To help you with recruiting, a downloadable CoCoRaHS brochure is available by clicking here: CoCoRaHS Brochure. Please also share our very short CoCoRaHS Rain Gauge Rally 26 trailer video.

Like last year, the scoreboard will update in real time, posting an ongoing tally of results by state/country/commonwealth on our "RAIN GAUGE RALLY 2026 PAGE ". The final results will be posted on May 1st. The winning state/country/commonwealth will get to hold onto and display one of the two "CoCoRaHS Cup" trophies until next April. The contest ends at midnight EDT on April 30th.

States/countries/commonwealths will be competing for two national trophies. The first will be awarded in the "Traditional Count" category. This is pretty straightforward. The state/country/commonwealth with the most new volunteers recruited in April 2026 wins. The second category will be "Population Weighted": the state/country/commonwealth that recruits the greatest number of new observers per one million of its total population wins. This second category is a little trickier. For each new volunteer who signs up, the state/country/commonwealth will receive a percentage of "one point" based on its total population (potential volunteer pool). This will give those with sparser populations an equal chance.States/countries/commonwealths with smaller populations will receive a larger point value for a new volunteer compared to those with larger populations (For each new volunteer, Wyoming will receive 1.72 points based on its population of 581,311 residents, whereas California, which will receive a much lower number of points per new volunteer, 0.03 with its population of 39,029,342 residents). These point values are based on "new stations per million residents," which is derived from the estimated population information (https://www.census.gov) 

Good luck to your state/country/commonwealth! Don't forget to tell someone about CoCoRaHS, especially in April!