Published: August 18, 2008 08:27 am         

Meet Charles Allen -The Rain Checker

New London man honored for years of tracking the weather

Sunday, August 17, 2008 — The sun shined bright on Charles Allen last week as the New London resident was honored for his years of tracking the rain, sleet and snow at his Ledbetter Road home.

The National Weather Service bestowed upon him the Edward H. Stoll Award for 50 years of service as part of the National Weather Service’s Cooperative Observers Climate Network.

The award is presented in honor of Stoll, who was the cooperative weather observer for more than 76 years in Elwood, Neb.

“Data obtained by his records are published and distributed throughout the state and used across the nation. Farmers, industry and researchers throughout North Carolina benefit from Mr. Allen’s efforts,” said Russ Henes, a hydrometeroligcal technician with the National Weather Service in Raleigh.

Fifty years is a long time for one individual or group to have tracked the weather, according to Henes.

“Anything beyond 25 years is certainly an achievement,” Henes said.

The years of weather watching date back prior to the 64-year-old Allen’s participation. The observations began in 1958 at Alcoa.

After graduating from West Badin High School in 1962, Allen spent a year at Livingstone College in Salisbury, then returned to Stanly in 1963 when he found a job at Alcoa.

Allen began as a technician in the electrical energy production division. One of the duties in this department was weather observation.

Allen says that when he retired in 2001 as operations manager of the Yadkin Power Generating Papoco division in Tennessee, he was the only person left in his section who would be able to maintain the station. So, the weather service let him set up his recordkeeping at his home.

“In actuality what I do is maintain a weather observation station at my house,” Allen said.

“We make reports on our observations on a daily basis.”

The station, which is about five feet tall, is composed of an official weather observation machine.

“It looks like a big white bullet standing in my front yard,” he said.

The machine does a time stamp of the rain condition every 15 minutes.

“I actually check that station on a daily basis, twice each day, to make sure it is continuing to stamp like it’s supposed to stamp,” he said.

“At the end of the month, I take the tape off and prepare it for submission to the weather service. They read the observation for the entire month.”

While some weather observers track the wind speed, high and low temperatures and other characteristics of the climate, Allen only tracks the rain.

He wasn’t always interested in the weather, however.

“I can’t say that I had a particular interest in the weather, but going to work for Alcoa, it was a natural progression,” Allen said.

“Being involved in the weather observation in the Yadkin area, weather was a part of what we did.”

The dry spells had more of an impact on Allen that the wet years.

“1986, one of the driest years on record. That kind of stands out in my mind,” he said.

“The stretch between 1986 and 1989, that was just a profoundly dry period for Stanly County, the yadkin river particular.

“The drier years made more of an impact than the wetter years.When we didn’t have any water, we didn’t have any rain, that kind of stuck in your mind more than anything else did.”

Allen and his wife, Sandra, have three children and five grandchildren. He believes the weather observing for his family will end when he’s ready to let it go.

“I’m real proud to have been associated with the weather service for the period I have been and I look forward to being involved with the weather service for as long as my health will allow.”