SWOP Appreciation Day 2014

Weather Observer Appreciation Day

August 16, 2014

National Weather Service Lincoln hosted a Weather Observer Appreciation Day on Saturday, August 16, 2014.  The event was designed to honor our many dedicated weather observers, including members of both  the Cooperative Weather Observer Program (COOP) and the Significant Weather Observation Program (SWOP).  A total of 55 people turned out for the event, making the day a nice success!

With so many people planning to attend, we broke the day into two sessions in order to ease congestion.  The morning session ran from 9 AM to noon, while the afternoon was from 1 PM to 4 PM.  Several activities were planned for the day, with both sessions enjoying an introduction PowerPoint presentation in the conference room, a tour and question/answer period in the operations area, and even a tour and demonstration of our upper air balloon launch facility outside.

At the conclusion of the event, several special awards were handed out to observers who have gone "above and beyond" with either outstanding service during a significant weather event or a continuous record of daily reports.  Special Service Awards were given to SWOP members from the following communities: Effingham, Watson, Canton, Bloomington, Normal, Astoria, Champaign, Knoxville, and Pana.  A few additional awards will be distributed in the coming weeks to other observers who either were unable to attend or left before we had a chance to catch them.  In addition, three SWOP members travelled a great distance to join us at our Appreciation Day event, and we decided to honor them with a certificate for their efforts.  Members making the over 2 1/2 hour trip included: Clay City 4SE, Olney 4SW, and Centralia.     

We would like to thank everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to attend this special event.  This was the first outreach activity within the SWOP program in the past 2 years, and it turned out to be a great success!  Hopefully we will be able to plan other such events in the future, in an effort to maintain a close working relationship with our entire network of weather observers across central and southeast Illinois.  Without your continued support and dedication, we would not be able to do our jobs.  We sincerely thank you for everything you have done for us over the years and hopefully will continue to do for years to come!