Environment Canada Needs You

Weather

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Environment Canada relies heavily on meteorological volunteers to maintain weather records across Canada.

In Saugeen Shores, Brian Cole has been collecting and recording data, that the Saugeen Times has also been able to provide to readers.

Cole, who was raised on an English farm in Lincolnshire, England, has worked extensively in horticulture over the years both in England and Canada, where he moved to in the 1970s. "I saw a job posted in a nursery publication for a position as Manager at Humber Nurseries just outside Toronto. Things were in a recessionary state in England and I was a young man with a new family so I decided to apply."

He applied through the Canadian Consulate and Canada Manpower, was hired and three months later he and his young family were off to Canada.

Throughout the years, Cole has worked at a number of nurseries and, today, he and his wife Marie live in Southampton. "We looked at several places to retire," says Cole, "and the one thing that drew us to Southampton was the hospital. We wanted a community where there was emergency services and we bought a house just down the street from the Southampton Hospital.

Now, however, and unfortunately due to health reasons, Cole has to take a six-month leave from his volunteer weather position with Environment Canada and is looking to find a replacement. "I have found this so interesting," says Cole, "and I hate to give it up, even temporarily. If anyone is interested in being an Observer for the Meteorological Service of Canada, I would be happy to help him or her learn the system of taking thermometer readings and recording rain and snowfall. It's not difficult to learn and it really is satisfying knowing that what you are doing is providing data not just for today but for the future."

Anyone interested in learning more, can contact Cole at: brian.cole@sympatico.ca

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10/07/2009 10:50 PM

Brian Cole shows the temperature gauges used to determine high and low temperatures in a day

 Cole uses the precipitation gauge to determine rain and snowfall amounts

 Close-up of a temperature gauge system