HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-12-16, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1987. PAGE 5.
Doing something Weaf/yer observers
may not be able
to change the weather about the weather but at least they
=^===—==s==______________ have the facts
BY KEITH ROULSTON
While most of us talk about weather and
never do anything about it Boyd Taylor is
doing something, if only keeping track of it.
Mr. Taylor, who runs an orchard and
farming operation a couple of miles east of
Blythin Morris Township is one of more than
2,000 weather observers throughout Canada
whorecord weather on a daily basis. People
like Mr. Taylor, says Brad Schneller,
manager of the Agro-Climatology Program
for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and
Food at Guelph, are the unsung heroes in
recording the weather of the country.
These weather observers are dedicated
people, taking readings twice a day with no
remuneration. Mr. Taylor took over the job
from Louis Stadelmann when he retired from
his Morris farm to live in Goderich in 1975.
Someone was needed to look after the ‘ ‘ Blyth
station” and Mr. Taylor took it over.
The presence of the station on the farm
helps the orchard operation, Mr. Taylor
says. Fungicides, for instance, are applied to
the apple trees in relationship to tempera
ture and humidity: the higher the tempera
ture and the higher the humidity, the shorter
the infection period for apple scab.
The equipment at the Taylor farm, and at
the 360 other volunteer observation posts
across the province, is quite simple. Out in a
comer of the orchard is a white box on a post
thatlooks a little like a beehive. Called a
Stevenson screen, it has louvered sides that
allow air to circulate into the box but
prevents direct sunshine or rain from
contacting the thermometers inside.
There are two thermometers in the box.
One, for recording the high temperature of
the day is a like a medical thermometer that
will rise to the highest temperature of the
day, then stay there until the mercury is
shaken down again after the reading is
taken. The other thermometer records the
lowest temperature during the night.
In a clear spot on the other side of the
house is the rain gauge, mounted, like the
gauges at other weather stations, on a short
stake close to the ground. Inside the house is
a simple instrument that will be getting a
good workout in the coming months: a stick
calibrated in millimeters for measuring
snowfall. Theobserver simply sticks the
measuring stick down into the snow in
various locations and measures how much
snow has fallen.
Readings are taken twice a day, once in
morning and once in the evening, as close to
7 a.m. and 6 p.m. as possible. The figures
obtained are entered in a log along with
observations on the type of weather for the
day such as sunny, cloudy or partly cloudy.
At the end of each month Mr. Taylor, along
with the other observers across the country,
mails the report to Environment Canada.
There, Mr. Schneller says, the figures from
all across the country are thoroughly
checked. They are then sent to Environment
Canada’s Climate Centre in Downsview
where they are given a final inspection and
entered into computers. Information is then
available to those needing it in periodical
data publications, on microfilm and compu
ter tape.
Environment Canada gets about 200,000
requests a year for climatic data. The
requests come from planners and decision
makers in water resources, agriculture,
transportation, energy, construction and
many other social and economic sectors.
Today’s system is part of a long history of
weather recording that goes back long
before the country was formed, let alone had
a meteorological service. The earliest
weather journal in Canada, Environment
Canada says, was one kept for a 12-month
period in Quebec City in 1765-1766. In the
1830’sRec. C. Dade in Toronto kept a record
for an extensive period as did Dr. Charles
Smallwood in Montreal in the 1850’s. Other
early weather records were kept by Hudson
Bay Company factors and explorers such as
Palliser, Kelsey and Thompson.
The system has grown immensely over the
years. In 1871 there were 126 observation
stations in the country compared to 2,700 by
1983.
While the dedication shown by Mr. Taylor
as a volunteer for a dozen years has been
outstanding, he’s got a while to go to match
some of the other stations. The Baird family
of Brucefield have been recording the
weather through three generations since the
early part of the century. Environment
Canada has a series of awards for long-time
service as volunteers. This past year Dave
Grummett and the staff at the Maitland
Valley Conservation Authority at Wroxeter
were presented The Award of Merit for 20
years of service.
While many of the weather observation
stations are on farms many others are
manned by conservation authorities, On
tario Hydro employees, universities and or
other public bodies.
The service has made Mr. Taylor
observant of the weather in general and he
keeps plenty of unofficial weather observa
tions jotted down as well. This year those
observations were that apple blossoms were
out on May 12, the earliest date he
remembers in his life; that the swallows
disappeared August 25 as if they knew there
was going to be an early fall and yet there
were wild geese still spotted Dec. 2.
He keeps track of other observations, such
as a ring around the moon and the direction
the wind was blowing at the official change of
season (he notices that the direction
generally holds true for a whole season).
Boyd Taylor checks temperatures In the Stevenson screen, the little louvre-sided hut that
shields equipment from sun and rain to ensure that accurate temperatures are recorded.
The interest in weather has led Mr. Taylor
to be involved in other weather projects.
He’s also one of 1,400 volunteers in the
Severe Weather Watch Program. If he sights
some approaching weather pattern that
doesn ’t look normal he has a toll free number
and a special indentification number that
allows him to give information quickly to
weather officials. Sometimes they call him to
ask for information. Once, for instance,
radar showed a violent storm pattern coming
off Lake Huron but when they called, he
wasn’t observing anything. Friends in
Bayfield also confirmed there was no bad
weather.
At the time of the Woodstock tornado, Mr.
Taylor called Environment Canada to say he
could observe severe weather to the south on
what he thought would be a line from
Goderich to Stratford. He didn’t find out
until later that the disturbance was farther
south.
In the yard is a 10-metre tower that
remains from 1980 University of Guelph
research project. The University was trying
toco-relate wind direction, temperature and
humidity with ozone damage in white beans.
The Taylor farm was chosen because of its
7.•• J
gl
elevation (1175 feet above sea level). The
tower held the equipment for wind
measurement.
The weather records can also provide
hours of fun comparing one year with
another. By early December, for instance
there had only been 25.1 inches of rain so far
this year compared to 40.3 inches of rain in
1986 (with 353 mm. or nearly 14 inches in the
month of September alone). In 1986 there
were 129.8 inches of snow compared to just
66 inches to early December this year (but
149.6 inches in 1985).
While most of the information goes to
Environment Canada there are local uses as
well. Radio stations call at times wondering
about temperatures and there used to be a
fuel company that called on a regular basis
for information so it could estimate fuel
consumption by homeowners. And there are
the expectant mothers who call wanting to
get information to sooth their worries about
getting to the hospital.
The weather fascinates us all and we all
like to talk about it but few of us have as many
facts at our fingertips as weather observers
like Boyd Taylor.
The International
Scene
After years of warring
the Balkans are talking
BY RAYMOND CANON
1 have on my desk a book entitled
‘‘History of the Balkans” which
makes for very intersting if
somewhat bloody reading. There is
not a time, I can assure you, when
one of the six nations that make up
that area have not fought one of the
other six. They have, in fact,
changed from allies to enemies
with amazing rapidity so that it is
difficult to know at times who is on
your side and who you are fighting
against.
One thing that I discovered
during my travels through the
Balkans is that hatreds die a slow
death. 1 recall being in the city of
Nis in Jugoslavia and the first thing
that the locals wanted to show me
was the display of skulls put there
by the Turks when they were
controlling the area just to remind
the people who was boss. That was
a long time ago but the animosity
still remains. I went from there
down to Greece and was instantly
aware of the fact that the Greeks
were not about to let the Germans
forgetallofthe atrocities which
were committed in that country
during World War II.
And so it goes. I could go on and
on about the past but the present is
proof enough. At the present time
both Greece and Turkey are
members of NATO and I helped to
train aircrew from both countries.
You would never know that they
are allies; they hate each other with
a vengeance and I once was
reminded of this when 1 wrote a
letter to the editor of the local
newspaper suggesting that there
was nothing wrong with a donation
by the Canadian Armed Forces of
some obsolescent F-104 Starfigh
ters to the Turkish Air Force who
needs all the help it can get. I
immediately had the wrath of the
local Greek community down on
me for suggestion such a thing.
You can imagine, then, how
surprised 1 was recently to hear
that the six countries that make up
the Balkans are prepared to sit
down at the conference table and
attempt to patch up their differen
ces. The size of this problem can be
seen when I tell you that two
(Bulgaria and Roumania) are
members of the Russian dominat
ed Warsaw Pact, two are members
of NATO while the other two,
Jugoslavia and Albania, while
neutral, donotexactly like each
other.
The conference was proposed by
Jugoslavia, an act which makes me
wonder why Albania ever agreed to
reply to the invitation, let alone
take part. The Albanians, who
consider themselves to be more
neutral than the Swiss, normally
boycott international conferences
on principle, and generally have as
little to do with the outside world as
possible.
We should have known that
there might be a change in the wind
when the Albanians decided to
open diplomatic relations with
Canada, of all people since we have
very little to do with that country in
the way of trade or culture.
However, they did just that,
although Ottawa must be still
getting over the surprise of being
singled out for what passes for
attention in Albania.
At any rate the conference of the*
Balkan nations is scheduled to take
place early in 1988 although there
is not yet any agenda. The
Jugoslavs are wise to concentrate
on those items that could contri
bute to more unity, not disunity:
there is enough of the latter
already. Some topics that come to
mind include transportation, ener
gy, commerce and environment;
they might even get around to
looking at the possibility of a
nuclear-free zone.
I would dearly love to go to the
conference if only to witness how
long it will take before one of the
participants drags out some slight,
real or imaginary, and proceeds to
hammer another country with it.
Even the host country, Jugoslavia,
is not exactly overjoyed with its
relations with Albania although, to
be honest, the two did recently
establish railway links for the first
time.
At least they are talking or
planning to do so. That in itself is
something positive and in the
Balkans it must be considered as a
rarety. I wish them all the best but I
won ’ t be surprised if someone ends
up by delcaring war on somebody
else. As I said, hatreds die hard in
that area.