Nancy Taylor receives Holm award for 35 years of weather recordings

Nancy Taylor of La Crosse Dec. 7 received the John Campanius Holm award, a national honor for her dedication to observing and reporting weather for more than 35 years. The award was presented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-tion’s National Weather Service.

John Livingston, Meteorologist in Charge at the National Weather Service Office in Spokane, made the presentation of the award at the Taylor home in LaCrosse. Other officials from the weather service forecast office in Spokane also attended.

“We are pleased to recognize Nancy Taylor as one of the nation’s top cooperative weather observers,” said Livingston. “For more than 35 years, her accurate and timely weather reports have played a critical role in defining the climate and rainfall patterns of Whitman County, and they have supported the National Weather Service forecasting and warning programs in the Palouse region of Washington.”

The cooperative weather observer program is a nationwide network of 11,000 volunteers who record temperature and precipitation each day. The information collected becomes part of the nation’s historical weather and climate archive. Nancy Taylor has a long, distinguished record as one of the observers and the Holm Award is one of the most prestigious awards presented each year by the weather service. It was one of 26 Holm Awards presented nationally this year.

John Campanius Holm recorded the earliest American continent weather observations during 1644 and 1645.