Author of Snow Bible Retires

Nolan Doesken.  Source: CSU Water Center.

I learned today that after a 40 year career, including more than a decade as Colorado's State Climatologist, Nolan Doesken has retired from Colorado State University.

Nolan has had an impressive career, but there are two of significant interest to readers of this blog.  First, along with Art Judson, he authored The Snow Booklet: A Guide to the Science, Climatology, and Measurement of Snow in the United States, which serves as the "snow bible" in the United States.

Published in the 1990s, it is now freely available online from Colorado State University, so click and have a look.  It is written in very accessible language and a good read for all snow lovers and Wasatch Weather Weenies.

Second, Nolan is the founder of the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network, better known as CoCORaHS.  A great example of citizen science, CoCoRaHS is a network of volunteer observers who measure rain, snow, and hail using inexpensive gauges and techniques.  There are a remarkable number of observes (check the web site), with observations used for everything from operational weather forecasting to meteorological research.  Observer density in the Intermountain West is relatively low compared to other regions, so get involved if you are interested.  There's also this article that appeared in Weatherwise in 2010.