By Associated Press - Saturday, December 8, 2018

GARRISON, N.D. (AP) - Weather observer Stu Merry is the latest person to carry on the tradition of volunteer weather reporting at North Dakota’s longest running cooperative observation station.

Merry’s daily weather reporting looks far different than observers’ experiences in the Garrison cooperative’s early days more than a century ago, the Minot Daily News reported. The Garrison site has been reporting the weather since 1875, according to National Weather Service records.

The National Weather Service has automated weather stations across North Dakota, but still relies on cooperative observers to fill gaps in weather coverage.

Merry records daily high and low temperatures from a sensor device that the weather service installed in the backyard of his home. He uses a rain gauge to measure precipitation.

“It’s snowfall that gets tricky,” Merry said. “Hopefully snow falls straight down. That’s great. Then you just measure off a board or a flat surface, with a measuring stick, and that gives you your snowfall. Blowing snow is different.”

Snowfalls in windy or blizzard-like conditions require Merry to take more than one measurement from between three and four locations to calculate an average of depth of snow. Merry then takes a snow sample into his home and lets it melt to figure out the amount of precipitation that fell.

“I’ve always enjoyed weather,” Merry said. “Everybody talks about it.”

Merry used to publish weekly weather reports while working for the McLean County Independent newspaper in Garrison. He took up the volunteer weather reporting after he retired.

“The NWS is always looking for more observers,” Merry said. “It gives them a boots on the ground perspective. You can have all the automated service that you want but there’s still the eyes and the ears of people like me and others.”

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Information from: Minot Daily News, http://www.minotdailynews.com

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