Cooperative Observer News

By: Mark Turner

It is my pleasure and honor to announce that Roy Gardner of Allagash, Maine has been awarded the John Campanius Holm Award from the National Weather Service for the year 2001!

The John Campanius Holm award was created to honor Cooperative Observers for outstanding accomplishments in the field of meteorological observations. It is named for a Lutheran minister, the first person
known to have taken systematic weather observations in the American Colonies. Reverend Holm made weather observations, without the aid of instruments, in 1644 and 1645 near the present site of Wilmington,
Delaware. His son later had these observation published.

From hundreds of nominations each year, no more than twenty-five of these awards are presented annually to the volunteer observers, and Roy's award is one of only six from the entire Eastern Region of the National Weather Service.

Roy has been a Cooperative observer for the National Weather Service since 1981.  During that time Mr. Gardner has distinguished himself as a fine weather observer, and a great asset to the forecasting and climatological sections of the National Weather Service.

The weather across Northern Maine can be extreme, in winter and summer, especially in the remote Allagash area.  During the winter months, Mr. Gardner is a crucial link in the winter storm verification process, measuring meteorological phenomenon and phoning his readings in

to the NWS  in Caribou.  Further more, Mr. Gardner takes snow-core samples at several locations, which are very useful to the Hydrology program.  These core samples are made available to the NWS, as well as other federal agencies, and Environment Canada.  During the spring and summer months, Roy acts as the primary river observer for the wild Allagash region, keeping forecasters abreast of the river's temperament, and taking periodic water samples for the USGS and US Army Corps of Engineers.

After 3 years of military service, Mr. Gardner returned to Allagash in
1954, and began working for the USCOE on the Dickey Dam project in 1962.  For the many years of this project, Roy provided the Corps lab
with water samples, snow data and weather observations.  After his retirement from USCOE, Roy was

elected Mayor of Allagash, and has served in this capacity for the last 35 years.  During a massive flood season in 1991, Roy provided critical real-time weather and river reporting to the NWS as a COOP observer, and then went to Washington D.C. as Mayor to request federal aid to repair damaged area bridges.

Roy Gardner was a natural selection for the John Campanius Holm Award. Whenever there is a need, he is on the scene, reporting critical
information to a variety of agencies.  For all practical purposes,  Roy Gardner is Allagash.  Congratulations Roy!

The National Weather Service's Cooperative Observers supply a large share of the observational data that used by the Caribou Forecast Office daily in the forecast