Volunteer weather observers - an endangered species

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Volunteers are an invaluable source of good weather data and are much more cost-efficient than automated weather stations. Their precipitous decline leaves huge and increasing gaps in the weather observation network

by PHIL CHADWICK

First, you need observations. Current conditions define the coming weather. Long-term trends of weather observations define the climate. More observations are always better, but it is getting harder and harder to gather that information. Canada is vast and it takes a lot to observe this huge environment.

Volunteer weather observers have been an important data source to help define where the climate is headed. During my mid-career in meteorology around 1990, there were 300 to 400 volunteer weather observers in Ontario and 2,500 across Canada. Twenty years later, we are down to a third of that total – roughly 120 volunteers in Ontario and about 630 across Canada. Those observers who remain are less likely to be volunteers, more probably employees of governments, water treatment plants, universities or conservation authorities.

There used to be dozens of volunteer weather observers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The current GTA population of about six million may have doubled from the 1980s, but the volunteer weather observers now only tally two – and one is a good friend of mine, also retired.

This precipitous decline leaves huge and increasing gaps in the weather observation network that is not filled by automated weather stations. The volunteers provide one-third of Environment Canada's monitoring ability across this country and half of the ability to measure climate variables. As the volunteers have retired, so has the ability of Environment Canada to monitor and measure the climate. Maybe not monitoring the climate will make climate change go away – "no body, no crime."

As an "old-school" meteorologist, I always much preferred human observations of weather conditions over the output of the automated sensors. The instruments may be improving, but it was a challenge to deduce what was actually occurring. The automated output was often ambiguous, offering cryptic data, and sometimes was simply wrong. Some weather phenomena, like freezing rain and fog, were not well observed by the instruments. The only way to know if a tornado had gone across the automated weather station would be that it had stopped reporting and had been literally blown away with the wind.

Each of these automated station costs about $100,000 to install and $11,000 to maintain each year. It is not an economical solution to just dot the landscape with more and more of these automated stations, regardless of whether I trust the data or not. Setting up and looking after a volunteer observation station costs much, much less – about $2,500. The ongoing annual cost is minimal after the instruments are deployed – maybe a new coat of paint for each.

Typically, farmers and retired weather enthusiasts make up this vanishing breed of volunteer observers. Twice a day, they venture out to their weather instruments to record the temperatures and precipitation. The really keen observers probably head out more frequently to really keep a track of what the weather is doing and keep the equipment in top shape. The dedication to make the round trip out to the climate station about a thousand times of year is admirable. The data is invaluable and it serves the greater good in the community. These trips to the climate station occur regardless of the weather and are probably more frequent when the conditions are particularly nasty.

There are only four numbers involved in each climate observation – the day's high and low, current temperature and precipitation. The tools include two thermometers (one alcohol-based, the other using mercury), a rain gauge that measures precipitation, a wooden snow stick and a flat "snow board" for snow accumulation. These simple tools can provide information that is irreplaceable and its value cannot be overstated.

The observations are sent to Environment Canada and added to the national climate data archive. From there, they are used by everyone from farmers and insurance adjusters to municipal budget planners and engineers and provide a valuable data set. Information from the same location and instruments permits some excellent trend analysis.

Unfortunately, most observers don't last longer than five years. It may involve simply reading the instruments and filing a report that is now online, but it does require attention every single morning and evening. Sometimes, the children of volunteer weather observers carry the torch for their parents. But eventually everyone retires, no matter how passionate they might be about the weather and climate.

The volunteer weather observers are on the front line of climate change. It is hard to imagine that the weather and climate can change over one's lifetime, but they most certainly have. These very special volunteers are certainly endangered. Unless the volunteer program is nurtured in an innovative manner, volunteer weather observers are apt to become extinct.

For more information on these and other programs – or to become a volunteer monitor yourself – please visit the Science and the Environment web site at www.ec.gc.ca/scitech or contact Environment Canada's Inquiry Centre at 1-800-668-6767. BF

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick has been a professional meteorologist since 1977, specializing in training, severe weather and remote satellite and radar sensing.