MONROE TWP., Pa. (EYT) — The Walmart Foundation made a $1,000.00 donation to Clarion County to help develop an in-county volunteer group of “Rain Gauge Readers.”
(Pictured above, left to right: Clarion County Public Safety Director Jeff Smathers,; Clarion County Commissioner Ted Tharan; Walmart Assistant Manager Angie Dittman; Walmart Assistant Manager Steven Druzak; and Clarion County Deputy Director for the Department of Public Safety and EMA Coordinator Randall Stahlman)
The current system of reporting rainfall amounts is through a National Weather Service system called IFLOWS. This system is over 40 years old and is no longer being serviced by the National Weather Service.
Because this rainfall information is vital to emergency response during severe weather incidents, it is imperative that Clarion County establishes its own method of collecting this information.
Clarion County Public Safety Deputy Director Randall Stahlman said the donation will cover the full cost of an estimated 25 new rain gauges for the county. The new gauges will replace the now defunct IFLOWS system.
“Neither the National Weather Service or PEMA has the funding anymore to maintain that system, and it died off. I had eight of the IFLOW gauges in the county, and I can’t get readings from any of them,” Stahlman said.
The new system will not rely on the same kind of technology utilized by the IFLOWS system. The rain gauges will be entirely manual and will require a group of volunteers to take the readings.
“It’s a round tube that will hold up to eight inches of rain with a center tube that holds one inch, so usually, what we’ve been getting is less than an inch of rain. You go in and get that, dump it out, and record it.”
Stahlman said that volunteers would be asked to report weekly rain totals on a regular basis, but would also need to be able to get additional readings in the case of severe weather. The readings during heavier periods of rain can give the county an idea of threats of potential flooding.
“It’s when we get hit with the two to four inches of rain in a three-hour period that it’s really going to affect us. That way we can start watching our streams and our creeks then for flooding and road closures and things like that.”
The volunteers will not be required to have any special training; however, Stahlman stated that the county will be utilizing an online data system that volunteers can sign up for to make their reporting easier, The county will also offer help in learning the system. Nevertheless, reporting through the online system will not be mandatory for the volunteers.
Stahlman said that he planned to place the order for the gauges on Friday afternoon, but the locations for the new gauges still need to be determined.
“We’ve got three watersheds in the county, Redbank Creek, Clarion River, and Allegheny River, so we’d like to go get the rain gauges placed, so that we can get good readings for each watershed,” he explained.
The system is still going to take some time to be operational.
“I think the first thing we want to do is identify the areas or places in the county that we want to set the rain gauges. Then, we’ll go out and look for volunteers. We’ll probably start with the fire departments and go from there.”
Stahlman hopes to have the new gauges, which can also do snow measurements, set up and the volunteers ready by sometime this December.
