Press Release
Recognizing 36 years of dedication, NOAA’s National Weather Service has named LaRaine Johnston of Wellington, Utah a 2016 recipient of the John Campanius Holm Award for outstanding service in the Cooperative Observer Program. This award is one of the agency’s most prestigious, with only a maximum of 25 earned each year by deserving weather observers throughout the country. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The John Campanius Holm Award will be presented to Mrs. Johnston in a small ceremony by Meteorologist-In-Charge Randy Graham and Observations Program Leader Lisa Verzella, both from the Salt Lake City Weather Forecast Office (WFO). Also in attendance will be Wellington Mayor Joan Powell.
The National Weather Service’s Cooperative Observer Program consists of nearly 10,000 volunteers across the nation who, each day, meticulously record maximum and minimum temperatures in addition to precipitation, snowfall and snow depth. The daily data obtained from these observers provides the climate records and climate normals for cities, towns and local sites throughout the entire U.S.
The historical record of Wellington weather observations dates back to 1980, when LaRaine Johnston took the helm. Earlier that year, LaRaine had written a personal letter in florid handwriting to the Salt Lake City Cooperative Program Manager, requesting the placement of a weather station at her house. Within a few months of her request the station was approved and installed. Laraine began taking observations in May of 1980 and hasn’t stopped. She trained her husband Von and together they have braved thunderstorms, torrential rains, extreme wind and winter blizzards to gather observations every single day.
In addition to submitting her monthly weather reports for the past 36 years, LaRaine phones in her observations to the Salt Lake WFO every evening, for inclusion in the Salt Lake City NWS Regional Temperature and Precipitation product. Laraine is also always willing to provide spotter reports for the extreme weather events that occasionally threaten life and property in this vicinity, greatly assisting the WFO with warnings and verification.
Mrs. LaRaine Johnston brings great dedication and pride to the Cooperative Observer Program. Her service to her community, the state of Utah and to our nation has been outstanding.
Across Utah, more than 100 volunteer cooperative weather observers record the daily weather. Data collected by the Johnston’s and other Cooperative observers benefits many federal, state and local agencies, including the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. These agencies use the information to assist in water and irrigation management.
Cooperative Observer Program Information
The Cooperative Observer Program was established in the 1890s to provide data to the newly formed Weather Bureau, predecessor to the National Weather Service. Today, the program comprises more than 10,000 volunteer observers who record temperature and precipitation data daily. Many of the stations have very long histories. John Campanius Holm, a Lutheran minister, was the first person known to have taken systematic weather observations in the American Colonies. He did so in 1644 and 1645, without the benefit of instruments. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson all maintained early weather records. Jefferson kept an almost unbroken record of weather observations from 1776 through 1816. Washington took his final weather observations just a few days before he died.
Cooperative observers are the bedrock of weather data collection and analysis. Satellites, high-speed computers, mathematical models and other technological breakthroughs have brought great benefits to the nation in terms of better forecasts and warnings. But without the century-long accumulation of accurate weather observations taken by volunteer observers, scientists could not begin to adequately describe the climate of the United States.
Weather records become more valuable with age. Long and continuous records provide an accurate picture of a locale’s normal weather and give climatologists and others a basis for predicting future trends.