Newsletter December 2009 Welcome! This is the first monthly newsletter for CoCoRaHS observers in Mississippi. Each monthly newsletter will typically feature state network updates, weather summaries over the course of the previous month, monthly awards, upcoming training sessions, and other important information related to CoCoRaHS. A large portion of this newsletter will consist of weather summaries, including precipitation amounts that will come from actual observers like YOU. We strongly encourage you to report daily, if possible, even when no precipitation or a trace falls. Your non-precipitation reports can be used to track drought conditions across the state. Please understand the 0 or T for Trace is just as important as actual rainfall accumulation. If you are going to be out of town over the holidays, you should not feel obligated to report daily precipitation. When you return, you can use the Multi-Day Precipitation form to enter an accumulated precipitation amount while you were gone. Your reports matter! They may provide potentially life-saving information to National Weather Service meteorologists. The reports are also used by the media, climatologists, hydrologists, teachers, students, community neighbors, and ranchers and farmers.
We would like to thank each of you for your participation in the network! State of the Network The state network was first launched in August 1, 2008. As the end of the year approaches, we have seen modest growth in the past 16 months. Indeed, we currently have over 200 observers across the state, but we would like to continue to expand the network coverage. The dots on the map below show where our observers are located. There are still 36 counties that do not have observers, and we hope to decrease that number in the future.
If you know of anyone that might be interested in joining, please forward them to the web sites below or have them contact the state or regional coordinators. About CoCoRaHS http://www.cocorahs.org/content.aspx?page=aboutus Join CoCoRaHS http://www.cocorahs.org/application.aspx Rare November Tropical Storm Impacts Mississippi This fall has been extremely wet already, but conditions turned relatively dry for much of November. The exception was a rare November tropical storm that added to the rainfall surplus across parts of the state on November 9-10. Ida made landfall near Dauphin Island on the morning of November 10, making it the first tropical storm to strike the United States in November since Gordon in 1994. The overwhelming majority of the rain fell along and southeast of the Natchez Trace, and the highest amounts generally occurred along the coast. The table below shows the 48-hour precipitation totals from 7 a.m. November 9 to 7 a.m. November 11. County Location Station Amount Jackson 4.1 NNW of Vancleave MS-JC-13 3.74 Harrison 0.8 SSE of Long Beach MS-HR-12 2.40 Hancock 1.1 NW of Waveland MS-HC-11 2.42 Stone 5.5 ENE of Wiggins MS-ST-2 2.53 Pearl River 5.6 ENE of Picayune MS-PR-4 2.25 Forrest 1.2 WSW of Hattiesburg MS-FR-4 0.70 Wayne 12.3 SSW of Waynesboro MS-WY-1 3.05 Jasper 9.0 E of Louin MS-JS-1 1.25 Newton 2.8 NE of Hickory MS-NW-4 1.00 Kemper 4.3 S of De Kalb MS-KM-1 1.50 Lauderdale 3.5 NW of Meridian MS-LD-10 1.62
Jackson radar image from 2:59 a.m. CST on Tuesday, November 10 as Tropical Storm Ida approached the northern Gulf Coast. Yellow, orange, and red colors generally indicate moderate to heavy rainfall is occurring across much of southeast Mississippi. MONTHLY AWARDS -Most Monthly Precipitation: 4.14 (MS-JC-13; 4.1 mi NNW of Vancleave 4.1) -Most Daily Precipitation: 3.74 on November 10 (MS-JC-13; 4.1 mi NNW of Vancleave 4.1) During the month of November, we had 38 stations report precipitation every day. The stations with perfect attendance were: MS-AT-2, MS-CP-3, MS-FR-4, MS-GD-1, MS-GD-3, MS-HC-8, MS-HR- 7, MS-HR-15, MS-HD-4, MS-JC-2, MS-JC-8, MS-JC-13, MS-JC-16, MS- JN-1, MS-KM-1, MS-LM-2, MS-LD-1, MS-LD-7, MS-LD-8, MS-LD-9, MS- LD-10, MS-NW-3, MS-OK-4, MS-OK-5, MS-OK-11, MS-PR-1, MS-PR-4, MS-RN-1, MS-RN-2, MS-RN-23, MS-SP-1, MS-TT-1, MS-WR-1, MS-WR- 3, MS-WR-4, MS-WS-1, MS-WS-2, and MS-WN-2. Thanks to all of our observers for your consistent reporting!
MISSISSIPPI CoCoRaHS -State Coordinator- Kathy Sherman-Morris -- kms5@geosci.msstate.edu -State Co-Coordinators- Charles Wax -- wax@geosci.msstate.edu Marty Pope -- marty.pope@noaa.gov -Northern Mississippi Regional Coordinators- Zwemer Ingram -- zwemer.ingram@noaa.gov Nancy Lopez -- nlopez@oce.usda.gov -Central Mississippi Regional Coordinators- Marty Pope -- marty.pope@noaa.gov Joanne Culin -- joanne.culin@noaa.gov -Southwest Mississippi Regional Coordinators- Robert Ricks -- robert.ricks@noaa.gov -Southeast Mississippi Regional Coordinators- Jack Cullen -- jack.cullen@noaa.gov -Newsletter Editor- Justyn Jackson -- jdj8@msstate.edu