Through the Cooperative Weather Observer (Coop) Program, the National Weather Service (NWS) utilizes citizen volunteers across the country to record daily temperatures and precipitation. This helps them better predict the weather and keeps a historical log generating the longest, continuous and consistent climate database for the area.
The Coop Program is more than 200 years old. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were some of the first observers.
"They had a passion early on for weather and found the value in taking weather observations," said Corby Dickerson, meteorologist with the NWS in Missoula, Mont.
The program took off when telegraphs allowed weather observations to be shared and recorded on an official basis across the country. Now there are nearly 9,000 volunteer observers across the country. In Missoula they have been taking weather observations since 1893.
The Coop station locations are chosen because they have a historical aspect to them and are located in areas that do not have weather data provided in other ways. Before establishing a new station, the NWS looks at where they would benefit from additional data to help them understand the weather and climate for the region.
In the Blackfoot, Clearwater and Swan drainages Marty Kux is a Coop who takes observations at Lindbergh Lake. The Seeley Lake Ranger District reports readings and the Potomac station was reestablished this past December. The Potomac station existed previously for 40-50 years but they did not have a Coop for the past couple of years. There are also automated Fischer-Porter Rain Gauges at Swan Lake and in Ovando that have measured precipitation for the past 50-60 years.
"Most of the Coops are just average citizens like Marty and the Coop in Potomac," said Dickerson. "A lot of times it comes down to finding someone who is willing to do something that requires this amount of time and it needs to be in an area where we need data."
Coops take daily temperature and precipitation readings. Every day at the same time they record the high and low temperature for the past 24 hours and note the current temperature. They also record the amount of liquid precipitation in the summer, amount of snowfall in the 24-hour period and snow/water equivalent and the current snow depth at their observation time.
"Unlike automated equipment that reports every hour, this data is a daily total observed as of a specific time. Since we have that consistency, it allows us to have a very comparative database," said Dickerson. "We haven't figured out how to completely automate a human observation. It is very expensive to build the kind of equipment that reaches that level of accuracy."
Dickerson said that having a station in Potomac is valuable because there is a valley off to the east that is cold. The Coop at Lindbergh Lake is another perspective of cold in a wooded valley that is wider. The data in Seeley Lake helps fill in the gap between the two stations.
John Stark, resident on Lindbergh Lake and son-in-law of Cap Laird owner of the Diamond Bar L Ranch, became a Coop in 1959. Kux met Stark when he moved to Lindbergh Lake. Kux visited with Stark and was interested in the weather records since he enjoys working with numbers.
When Stark was no longer able to continue taking observations, the NWS contacted Kux to continue taking observations. Because Kux lives on Cygnet Lake, less than a quarter mile as the crow flies from Stark's station, the NWS felt the new location maintained the climate consistency within the database. They determined it was a compatible move so they continued to add to the database Stark started. Kux started taking the observations in June 1981.
"If we don't have that consistency, we can't say that the weather and climate for that location is representative of the old station, [and] then we will either establish a new station with a new climate database or look for something that is more representative," said Dickerson.
Dickerson said that the data allows the NWS to maintain a consistent climate database and to correct weather models thus making their predictions more accurate. By using the real data, they are able to develop a bias correction for their weather prediction models.
All the stations are visited at least once per year to perform station maintenance and visit with the observers and make sure they are doing well.
"These observers are doing a very good service to us and the American public," said Dickerson.
The NWS gives out a series of awards to Coops for length of service and going above and beyond the call of duty. The length of service award goes up to 80 years and is called the Richard Hendrickson Award. Hendrickson completed 80 years of continuous observations in 2010 in Bridgehampton, N.Y. He continued to take observations until 2015 when he retired at the age of 103.
"It's amazing to me that there have been people willing to take weather observations for what ends up being a significant portion of someone's life," said Dickerson.
The NWS would like to find a Coop observer in Drummond and reestablish an observer in Swan Lake and Ovando. Dickerson said that would allow them to collect the temperature component to add to the automated precipitation.
"The Coop program is one of the longest-standing volunteer programs in the United States. It's a unique level of service that is invaluable to us at the weather office," said Dickerson. "As much as we continue to get automated data, there is very little data that supplants the accuracy and consistency that we get from our Coop observers. Being a meteorologist is not an easy job. Knowing that we can get accurate and timely data from our Coop observers is greatly valued."
Other ways the public can get involved with the NWS includes submitting observations to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) Network, becoming a Skyward Weather Spotter or submitting observations on Facebook and Twitter to @NWS Missoula.
While the Coops are site dependent, CoCoRaHS observers can be from anywhere. They receive NWS training and are either given the equipment or are taught how to build it to accurately measure rain, hail and snow. They then submit a report online at http://www.cocorahs.org. That information is then referenced by the NWS.
The Skyward Weather Spotter also received training from the NWS that is more specific to severe weather. Observers can distinguish different characteristics of thunderstorms, learn how to determine difference between a wall cloud and tornado, as well as learning how to measure hail and when to contact the NWS when the weather meets the criteria including hail, heavy snow, damaging winds, extraordinary temperatures and flooding.
For more information about any of the programs offered by the NWS, call the NWS in Missoula at 406-329-4840.
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