Social - January 2004

OBSERVATION STATION

Man makes weather part of daily life

 By ALICE SMITH, Staff Writer

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The tradition of weather watching has deep roots in western Lincoln County.

West Lincoln has a history of weather observers in its rolling hills. Since 1952, when the National Weather Service established a weather station in Lincoln County, west Lincoln residents have taken on the responsibility of the observations.

The station was first set up at Russell Carswell’s country store which used to sit at the intersection of N.C. 27 West and Cat Square Road, said Johnny Hoyle, Lincoln’s current observer.

Carswell observed the weather and sent in his recordings for five years. On June 4, 1957, Banks Heafner moved the station to his home on Harmon Road.

He maintained the station until his death on Oct. 22, 1987.

Heafner’s wife, Ruby, took over until December of that year. And that’s when Hoyle came in.

Hoyle had been fascinated by the weather station long before he took over for the Heafners.

He was a regular fixture at the Heafners’ home and spent many hours watching and learning.

“I went up to Banks’ from time to time, and I enjoyed talking to him about the observations he did for the Weather Service,” Hoyle said from his home on N.C. 182. “I guess what fascinated me the most was the equipment that the Weather Service provided for us to use.”

The Cooperative Weather Observing Program is done completely by volunteers. There are more than 11,000 observers throughout the United States.

Hoyle, who works at the Timken Company and volunteers at Howards Creek Volunteer Fire Department, feels he’s doing a service to Lincoln residents by keeping accurate records.

“I like to do volunteer work, and this was something I could do on my own,” Hoyle said.

Hoyle is a “six o’clock reader,” he said, meaning he does his readings at 6 p.m. every day.

He records the day’s minimum and maximum temperatures from a unit that runs from his backyard to a small machine in his living room.

In another section of Hoyle’s sprawling green yard he has a Model 6310 rain gauge to measure precipitation. By taking a funnel and smaller, inner tube out of the gauge, it can be used to measure snow and ice.

Hoyle also writes down his own observations of the weather — heavy fog, light wind, bright sun. It’s not required, but something he does anyway.

“I always put a little reminder every day. I have since the very first time I did my observations,” Hoyle said.

“I don’t really know why, but it’s something that if anybody would ever call me and want to know what it was like … I could pretty much tell them what it is like that particular day.”

And tell them he can.

His voice speeds up as he goes over his records — hundreds and hundreds of temperatures and inches and observations.

Ask him what happened on March 3, 1992, and it’ll take him only minutes to pull out a detailed chart in one of his neatly organized books.

Hoyle’s monthly weather report is sent to the Weather Office in Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C. and is then processed and sent to the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville where it’s archived.

Hoyle never misses a day — if he takes a vacation, it’s his responsibility to find a back-up observer.

And watching the weather never gets old, Hoyle said, “because every day is different in a certain way.

“It’s something that comes naturally to me at six in the afternoon. It’s like going to eat a meal at a certain time of the day — I go take my observations.”

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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