Cooperative Observer
What is the Coop Program?
The Cooperative Weather Observation program was first envisioned by Thomas Jefferson in the early 1770's. During the time from 1776 through 1816, Thomas Jefferson had acted upon his idea and had established observers in every county of Virginia, and had established the program in 5 other states. They included Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York and North Carolina.
During the early and mid 1800's, weather observation networks began to grow and expand across the United States. Although most basic meteorological instruments had existed for over 100 years, it was the telegraph that was largely responsible for the advancement of operational meteorology during the 19th century. With the advent of the telegraph, weather observations from distant points could be "rapidly" collected, plotted and analyzed at one location.
In 1849, the Smithsonian Institution began to supply weather instruments to telegraph companies and further establish an extensive observation network. Observations were submitted by telegraph to the Smithsonian, where weather maps were created.
By the end of 1849, 150 volunteers throughout the United States were reporting weather observations to the Smithsonian regularly. By 1860 the network had grown to 500 stations, which were making regular observations and sending them on to the Washington Evening Star, but work was interrupted by the Civil War. After the war and as the network grew, other existing systems were gradually absorbed, including several state weather services.
In 1890, the growing volunteer force was taken over by the Smithsonian Institution. By 1891, the network of voluntary weather observers across the country had grown to 2,000 stations. By 1990, the network had expanded to 10,000 sites.The most recent statistics estimate that there are almost 12,000 cooperative observers in the United States.
It was not until 1953 that a plan was established to evenly blanket the nation with weather observers. Dr. Helmut Landsberg of the Weather Bureau conducted a study with Iowa State University to establish a method of filling in the open spaces of this volunteer network. As a result of this study,it was determined that there should be one weather station every 25 miles for estimating rainfall within an accuracy tolerance of ten percent.
To date, Mr. Edward G. Stoll, who took weather observations for 76 years in Arapaho, Nebraska, has the longest history as a Cooperative Weather Observer. He had a 50 year award named after him. Recently, Mrs. Ruby Stufft, a volunteer weather observer from Elsmere, Nebraska, received the first ever Ruby Stufft Award. This award will be presented to any observer who volunteers 70 years of their time. She recorded the weather for 70 years and became the first woman to reach that landmark.
A Valuable Service
In 1933, the Secretary of Agriculture, Henry Wallace, with a science advisory group, told President Roosevelt that the Cooperative Program is one of the most extraordinary services ever developed, netting the public more per dollar expended than any other government service in the world. That statement is still valid today. It is estimated that their time totals over a million hours a year.
Climatological records get more valuable with time. The climatological base generated through the efforts of the volunteer Cooperative Weather Observer provides not only the cornerstone of our nation's weather history, but also serves as the primary data for research into global climatic change.
Today, the Cooperative Program is an integral part of the ongoing efforts to maintain a National Climatological Database, but that is not all. This program provides weather information to the many forecast offices and hydrological offices all across this nation. This information includes such things as daily maximum and minimum temperatures, precipitation, soil temperatures, evaporation readings and river stage readings.
This information would not be possible if it were not for the dedicated efforts of volunteer observers all across the United States. This network consists of about 11,700 individual stations throughout the United States. These people come from all walks of life. There are doctors, farmers, ranchers, housewives, state, county and federal offices, business men and women, college students and retirees. These people are your neighbors, friends, coworkers maybe even relatives or family.
