Contact: Keli Tarp
(405) -366-0451
Cell (405) 203-4839
Keli.Tarp@nssl.noaa.gov

MARLOW RESIDENT ERNEST MUNCRIEF HONORED FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE VOLUNTEER OBSERVER PROGRAM

Recognizing 45 years of dedication and excellence, the National Weather Service has named Marlow resident Ernest H. Muncrief as a 2000 recipient of the agency's Thomas Jefferson Award for outstanding service in the Cooperative Weather Observer program. The award is the agency's most prestigious, and only five are presented each year to deserving cooperative weather observers around the country.

Mike Foster, meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service Norman Forecast Office, will present the award during a ceremony to be held during the Lion's Club meeting at noon Wednesday, Nov. 15 at the Lions Building in Marlow. Daryl Williams of the Norman office nominated Muncrief for the award.

The National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Observer Program has given scientists and researchers continuous observational data since the program's inception more than 100 years ago. Today, more than 11,000 volunteer observers - including 300 Oklahomans - participate in the nationwide program to provide daily reports on temperature, precipitation, and other weather factors.

Many of the cooperative stations have been collecting weather data from the same location for more than a century; in some cases, several generations of a family have given up vacations and braved all kinds of extreme conditions to report weather conditions. Most observers record precipitation and temperature data. Muncrief became the official observer at the Marlow station on Feb. 1, 1955, providing daily temperature and rainfall data to the Weather Service.