Reporting a Trace

Someone left a comment recently asking about a TRACE. See question below.

QUESTION: "Would you please clarify the use of "T" for trace. My reporting time is 7:00 AM, however if I know that a trace occured 4 hours prior to my reporting time do I still enter "T" under the precipatation block, then clarify the actual time of the trace in the Obervation Notes section?"

ANSWER: If your reporting time is 7 am, you are reporting anything that happened at your station up until the observation time. So if a trace happened overnight, or even at 6:59 am, you will report a T for trace.

Another way to think of it is that you are reporting anything during the past 24 hours, or since your last observation was made at 7 am yesterday.

If you would like to leave more information (such as the time it happened) you can certainly do so in the notes.

Thanks for reading the blog and asking such great questions!