Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Ten Sleep resident reports to NWS daily
National Weather Service Data Acquisition Program Manager Ralph Estell Jr, left, and Warning Coordination Meteorologist Chris Jones, right, presented John Greet (center) with the Edward H. Stoll Award at Ten Sleep Town Park Monday.
TEN SLEEP - Washakie County resident John Greet was awarded the Edward H. Stoll Award by the National Weather Service (NWS) on Monday, for 50 years of continuous service as a cooperative weather observer.
Since 1965, when first approached by the NWS, Greet has kept and filed daily weather reports from the Big Horn Basin, the Upper Nowood in particular. Data gathered by Greet, including precipitation totals, temperature fluctuation, and snowfall depth, contribute greatly to the NWS's ability to track climate change and forecast weather patterns. In 1965, all reports were filed by mail, which meant Greet had to venture to town from his ranch to send his data to the state office in Riverton. Today, Greet files online every morning, and the information is immediately available to the NWS for research purposes. At age 84, Greet said he will continue to collect data as long as he is able.
After 50 years of monitoring weather along the Nowood, Greet has learned that Wyoming weather is anything put predictable. "It's one extreme or the other," he said. Some of Greet's observations include the driest year on record, when the Upper Nowood received less than an inch of rain in 1979, to the hottest, when temperatures reached 103 in 1981. As noted by Greet, the most active changes have developed over the last few years, as evidenced by the record 103 inches of snow recorded during the winter of 2012-13.
Joined by his family at the Ten Sleep Town Park, Greet was presented with the Stoll Award by National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Chris Jones and Data Acquisition Program Manager Ralph Estell Jr., both of Riverton. Jones noted that of the 125 volunteer weather cooperatives in Wyoming, Greet is one of only four to receive the Stoll Award, and the first in western Wyoming.
The award's namesake, Edward H. Stoll, began his career as a cooperative weather observer at age 19 in Elwood, Nebraska, and served from 1905 to 1981. Stoll was the first to receive the award 50-year service award.
