The Bureau of Meteorology has honoured the efforts of Ivan Howard of Pokolbin’s Somerset Views with a very special award of excellence, for recording 50 years of rainfall data.
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Mr. Howard said he began measuring the rainfall for farming purposes but was soon contacted by the Hunter Valley Research Foundation to officially record the data.
Even at 91, Mr. Howard said he is still responsible for the rain and continues to record the data every month to send off to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).
“The farm needed it and I recorded it for my own purposes before the foundation came along and asked me to do it for them,” he said.
“It was then taken over by the bureau.”
The rainfall data at Somerset was supplied by Mr. Howard, to the Hunter Valley Research Foundation up until 1970, making his rainfall data recording well in excess of 50 years.
The process involved Mr. Howard reading the 203 milometre (eight inch) rain gauge and changing a weekly chart on the ‘pluviograph’ – a strip of graph paper which records the rainfall on a rotating clock drum.
With over 1400 rainfall sites across NSW, the special awards of excellence are rare and on average only one or two are awarded per year.
Mr. Howard’s daughter, Robyn Endersby, said that it was a wonderful achievement to be recognised.
The award was presented to Mr. Howard in June by Jason Gleadhill from the BOM at his Pokolbin home.
Mr. Howard has been farming at the property since 1944, firstly as a dairy farmer then changing to viticulture in 1968.
