HAZEL DELL — The 78th Street Heritage Farm was honored Nov. 1 for gathering weather data for more than 100 years. The National Centennial Weather Station Award comes from the Office of Observations, NOAA National Weather Service.
The farm’s earliest weather reports date to 1849. Near-continuous temperature and precipitation observations have been taken at this site from 1896 through present.
Most of Southwest Washington has changed greatly over the last 125 years. Forests have grown, logging has taken place, buildings and roads have been constructed. But not at the Heritage Farm. Weather instruments are in the same general location they were 125 years ago and land development over this period is minimal.
These factors make the 78th Street Heritage Farm the ideal site to monitor long-range weather patterns in Southwest Washington. Washington State University Clark County Extension currently supports the NOAA weather station by gathering baseline weather temperature data that helps to inform our local weather patterns. WSU also has a weather station housed at the farm that has been gathering data since the 1940s.
