Lambert honored with prestigious Holm Award

NOAA's National Weather Service recently named local Brice Lambert as a 2018 recipient of the agency's prestigious Holm Award for outstanding service in the Cooperative Weather Observing Program. This award is the agency's second most prestigious award. It is awarded to only a select few cooperative weather observers from around the country. Only twenty-one Holm Awards were given out this year, with one of those 5 awards in the Western Region.

The Holm Award was named in honor of John Campanius Holm, a Lutheran minister who was the first person known to have taken systematic weather observations in the American Colonies (1644- 1645).

Sean Wink, Chief, Systems & Facilities Division, National Weather Service Western Region and Keith Meier, Meteorologist-in-Charge of the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Billings, Mont., presented the award to Lambert during a short ceremony held at his home in Ekalaka on Monday.

Lambert began reporting daily observations from the Ekalaka Eagle on October 1, 1985. There has never been a missed daily observation since, unless there was total equipment failure. When Lambert sold the Eagle in 2014, the station was moved to his home. Weather data from this station is vital to the area and is part of the Historical Climate Network with over 100 years of observations at approximately the same location. Ekalaka is one of only 6 cooperative observers in Carter County.

Lambert has experienced a variety of weather in his 33 year history. The area experiences extreme temperatures ranging from a 52 degree below zero low in January of 2016, to a 110 degree high in June of 1988. The location is very dry with an average annual precipitation since 1948 of 16.81 inches. Precipitation records include a maximum daily rainfall of 3.12 inches in April 2008 and a maximum daily snowfall of 15.3 inches in April of 2006.

The Cooperative Weather Observer Program has given scientists and researchers continuous observational data since its inception more than a century ago. Today, over 10,000 volunteer observers participate in the nationwide program to provide daily reports on temperature, precipitation and other weather factors such as snow depth, river levels and soil temperature, which provide an accurate picture of a locale's normal weather, and give climatologists and others a basis for predicting future trends. These data are invaluable for scientists studying floods, droughts and heat and cold waves.