High Country News had a fascinating article this week about one of the longest-serving National Weather Service cooperative observers. Anna Mae Wright is a farmer who has been taking daily weather observations since the late 1940s in Redrock, New Mexico, which means she has been observing for seven decades. The NWS has depended on faithful volunteer observers like Mrs. Wright to provide timely and accurate measurements of temperature and precipitation for over 100 years, but it is getting harder to find people that stay in the same place for so long. Single-observer records provide the most consistent records over time and are highly prized by climatologists because every station move introduces a new local climate into the record, which could change the average temperature or precipitation of that station’s record just by moving to a new spot. You can read the story and see a picture of Mrs. Wright here.
Even if you don’t plan to live in one place as long as Mrs. Wright, there are a number of ways you can provide valuable weather observations. The CoCoRaHS network, described in this blog a few days ago, is a great way to do so.
