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One of the storms washed out roads.

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We had to clear a mudslide. Get out the pick and shovels.

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We were fording a river with water up to our knees

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as we were heading out to the sites.

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So it was pretty intense.

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I am a graduate student at the University of Washington

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and I’ve been working with the folks at NASA

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in the Olympic National Park

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to validate the GPM satellite observations.

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The GPM satellite has the amazing advantage

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that it can measure precipitation everywhere.

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But we need to know if the satellite measurements are accurate or not.

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So we have this ground network of instruments set up.

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At all the sites we have rain gauges

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so we know how much rain there is.

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We have disdrometers, which measure the individual raindrops themselves

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and tell us about the properties of the rainfall.

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The weather here is very unique

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we have all these different types of precipitation

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occurring in the same spot.

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You have this light uniform rain, you have this heavy isolated intense rain,

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you have snow.

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The goal of the ground instrumentation is to measure the changes in precipitation.

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It’s constantly damp out here.

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We’re measuring the rain but then the rain is falling on to our instruments.

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We have a lot of electronics and the water likes to try and drip into them.

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So we’ve had a lot of fun trying to keep things dry.

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The challenge really is just to keep everything running as this weather

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just continues to come one storm after another.

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It’s hard to get a break but it keeps it exciting.

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The more I learn the more I appreciate

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how intricate the details of what goes on in these storms.

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