15 U.S.C. § 8550: Improvements to Cooperative Observer Program of National Weather Service

State-coordinated programs relating to the Program; and States and regions where observations provided through the Program are scarce; working with State weather service headquarters to increase participation in the Program and to add stations in States and regions described in paragraph (1)(B); where feasible, ensuring that data streams from stations that have been contributing data to the Program for more than 50 years are maintained and continually staffed by volunteers; prioritizing the recruitment of new volunteers for the Program; ensuring that opportunities exist for automated reporting to lessen the burden on volunteers to collect and report data by hand; and ensuring that integrated reporting is available for qualitative observations that cannot be automated, such as drought conditions, snow observations, and hazardous weather events, to ensure that volunteers in the Program can report and upload observations quickly and easily. Not less frequently than every 180 days, the National Weather Service shall coordinate with State and regional offices with respect to the status of Cooperative Observer Program stations. The National Weather Service shall coordinate with other Federal agencies, including the Forest Service, the Department of Agriculture, and the United States Geological Survey, to leverage opportunities to grow the Cooperative Observer Program network and to more effectively use existing infrastructure, weather stations, and staff of the Program.