 Bruce and Suzanne Lans pose proudly with their new award, presented for 20 years of service. |
| Bruce and Suzanne Lans recently received a 20 year Length of Service award from the National Weather Service. Since May of 1984, Suzanne has been reading the wire weight river gage on the Sappa Creek, which runs south of Stamford. This information is then relayed to the Corp of Engineers at the Harlan Reservoir. As a result of the drought, for the past several years, there has been little, if any water level to report. However, the Lans family can relate many times when a dry riverbed was not the norm. There were times they can recall when water was coming through their front door. Just recently, the Stamford area was hit by straight-line winds and tornadoes.
The river level information that Suzanne passes on to the Corp of Engineers lets them know what amount of inflow they can expect into Harlan Reservoir, and if there is any flooding they need to be aware of. The information is also relayed to the National Weather Service in addition to 24 hour rainfall amounts. This information is archived and may be used to issue flood warnings or statements, and is also used in compiling climate statistics. There are over 300 cooperative weather observing sites in Nebraska, with 4 of them in Harlan county. With the new NeRAIN observing network setup by the Natural Resource Districts, the information compiled from both networks provides a much better picture of rainfall across the area. The time and effort these volunteers put into the program is very much appreciated by the National Weather Service and is used on a daily basis. The award was presented by Marla K. Doxey, Data Acquisition Program Manager at the National Weather Service office in Hastings, Nebraska. |
