Perfect holiday gift ideas for weather enthusiasts: CoCoRaHS gear, weather radios, home stations

Your Thanksgiving holiday weekend meals and conversation may involve asking the question: What would you like under the tree? Perhaps you have a family member or friend who is a weather enthusiast.

Here are some weather gift ideas for that special person.

Rain Gauge for the CoCoRaHS Program

CoCoRaHS stands for the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow Network, now in its 25th year since starting in Colorado after a flash flood, and now is in place across all of the U.S. and Canada.

Visit CoCoRaHS’ website for all the details, including how to obtain an official four-inch rain gauge for less than $50 in time for the big holiday.

CoCoRaHS citizen scientist observers report daily precipitation online from their backyards, including rain, hail and snow. All observations are posted each morning, including when you miss a few days while out of town.

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The CoCoRaHS website also offers training on where to place your rain gauge and how to properly and accurately measure snow, a critical element in this region’s complex terrain.

On cocorahs.org, you can also view reports among all the others in plotted maps or lists per county. Members of the media, the National Weather Service, water managers and many others use CoCoRaHS reports.

There are hundreds who report their rain, snow and hail reports across Washington, but hundreds more are needed. Weather in the region is terrain-driven, including rain shadows and convergence zones.

Differences in how terrain plays a key role in local weather show up when it snows with wide differences from one location to another, and with La Niña returning for this winter, CoCoRaHS snow reports really reflect those differences.

Have your loved one join the CoCoRaHS team. They may be cuckoo for CoCoRaHS and enjoy the thrill of sharing their precipitation data each day.

All-Hazards Weather Radio

Another holiday gift idea is an all-hazards weather radio. Weather radios are a lifesaver for the cost of a pair of shoes and are available both online and in selected electronic retailers.

These weather radio receivers behave like a smoke detector, alerting you to an immediate life-threatening event via the Emergency Alert System (EAS). Not only will it activate for weather events like tornadoes, flash floods, and strong damaging wind storms, it also alerts for 17 non-weather hazards such as a rapidly spreading wildfire, tsunamis, hazardous releases, jailbreaks and Amber Alerts from local emergency management authorities.

Normal operation is turning it on to listen to the latest area weather forecasts and current conditions from a local NOAA Weather Radio station. There are over 1,000 NOAA Weather Radio stations across the nation, including 10 serving Western Washington and 22 across the state, reaching over 95% of the state’s population.

In the wake of the recent “bomb cyclone,” one big benefit of these weather radio receivers is that they have backup power sources, including batteries and models with cranking for power. Battery backup runs for close to three days, which is important during power outages.

There are a variety of weather radio models. Most meet Public Alert specifications, the equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal. Public Alert certified weather radios include not only backup power resources, but also an external port of an optional pillow shaker and/or strobe light to serve the deaf and hard of hearing, an external antenna port for areas with reception challenges, and Watch/Warning/Advisory lights and a display screen.

Weather radio models include table top versions, some with AM/FM radio options — also important during power outages. There are handheld models, handy for use in the car or for outdoor activities. There are hand crank models and some have features such as cell phone or other device charging capabilities.

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A NOAA Weather Radio is another great holiday gift idea for that special weather enthusiast.

Home Weather Stations

For those with deeper pockets, another great holiday weather gift idea is a home weather station. These stations provide ongoing measurements of a wide variety of weather elements, including temperature, rainfall, wind direction and speed. Most models these days are wireless, meaning the instrument package is in your yard and the readout monitor is indoors.

There are a wide variety of home weather stations and you get what you pay for. The best and most reliable models usually cost at least $500, with some topping $1,000. These higher-end versions also offer the ability to post your data online via the Citizen Weather Observing Program. This program maps many online weather stations, including not only home weather stations but reports from the National Weather Service, the FAA, air quality sites, state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) sites and more.

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Once the home weather station is put into action, it is easy to visit the Citizen Weather Observing Program to set up and post the site’s data online. To find what and where all these mapped weather stations are located and their weather data, visit this version from the National Weather Service Seattle website. This webpage has a variety of capabilities, including zooming in to see more weather stations and adding layers such as current alerts and Doppler weather radar.

With the holidays now less than four weeks away, this Thanksgiving weekend may be the time to obtain that special weather gift so it will arrive and be ready to put under the tree. Have a great holiday season!

Ted Buehner is the KIRO Newsradio meteorologist. You can read more of Ted’s stories here and follow him on X