WFO San Juan MIC Israel Matos addresses cooperative observers during "Appreciation Day" (Photo courtesy WFO San Juan)

(December 10, 2005) -- The National Weather Service and the Puerto Rico Chapter of the American Meteorological Society co-sponsored a "Day of Appreciation" for cooperative observers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They came from all over Puerto Rico, including a representative from St. Croix, USVI. Featured speakers included NWS Southern Region Data Acquisition Program Manager Mike Asmus and Roberto Cortes from Telemundo, Channel 2.

Appreciation Day activities included videos, special presentations, tours of the Weather Forecast Office and a demonstration weather balloon launch. The main event was an Awards Ceremony during which Meteorologist-in-Charge Israel Matos presented Department of Commerce Certificates of Recognition to all the observers. A special thank you goes out to the staff of WFO San Juan and their family members who helped make the observers fell welcome and appreciated.

The NWS Cooperative Weather Observer Program has given scientists and researchers continuous observational data since the program's inception more than a century ago. Today, some 11,700 volunteer observers participate in the program to provide daily reports on temperature, precipitation and other weather factors such as snow depth, river levels and soil temperature.

The first extensive network of cooperative stations was set up in the 1890s as a result of an 1890 act of Congress that established the U.S. Weather Bureau. Many of the observation stations have even longer histories. Some historic figures who have maintained weather records include: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. In fact, Jefferson maintained an almost unbroken record of weather observations between 1776 and 1816.