Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club
Brainerd Daily Dispatch article
about Fritz Bertelt WØKO 
February 2, 2001 

It may not be hard work, but when M. Fritz Bertelt measures the snowfall in Brainerd, he is performing a public service for the community. The National Weather Service in Duluth is now searching for more volunteer snowfall spotters like Bertelt who live in the Brainerd lakes area to report snowfall amounts. (Dispatch Photo by Jodie Tweed)

JODIE TWEED
Staff Writer

After a few inches of snow hit the ground at M. Fritz Bertelt's home north of Brainerd he puts on his winter gear and heads outside, making sure to grab his spiffy bright orange official National Weather Service yardstick on his way out the door.

Bertelt, an English and German instructor at Central Lakes College, is a volunteer snowfall spotter for the National Weather Service in Duluth.

It may not be a tough job, but it's an invaluable one.

If a substantial snowfall is developing, Bertelt walks out to the middle of his yard in an open area, careful not to measure under any trees where a snowfall recording could be skewed. Then using his government-issued yardstick, he measures how much snow we've received, returning indoors to phone in his recordings to the National Weather Service on a toll-free number. Sometimes they call him to ask what the weather conditions are like in Brainerd.

In his yard on Monday, Bertelt recorded 2-1/2 inches of snow. Tuesday's snowfall added another inch and a half of accumulated snow.

"Basically, if it snows, you go out and measure it," said Carol Christenson, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Duluth. "But they help us make important decisions on winter advisories and warnings that can affect their lives."

The National Weather Service is now searching for more volunteers to become snowfall spotters, particularly in less populated areas north of Brainerd. The Duluth office needs volunteers throughout northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, its service area.

The NWS uses radar in Duluth and Fargo to detect weather changes and patterns throughout the region, but does not have the ability to find out how much snow has fallen in a given area. Radar is unable to determine whether the snowfall has created slushy or icy road conditions.

That's where snowfall spotters and the old-fashioned yardstick measurements come into play. Their first-hand observations are valuable to the National Weather Service.

"It gives you a good feeling to do something that can help someone else," said Bertelt, who also gathers rainfall totals for the National Weather Service in the summer months. "I guess it's just the nature of public service. The little bit that I'm able to do can help somebody."

Bertelt is also a member of the Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club, donating his ham radio talents to help the National Weather Service as a part of its SKYWARN system. If serious weather conditions erupt in the Brainerd lakes area, radio club members provide a communications link for the National Weather Service by reporting changing weather patterns here.

To become a snowfall spotter, contact the National Weather Service in Duluth with your name, address and phone number at National Weather Service, Attention: Steve, 5027 Miller Trunk Highway, Duluth, MN 55811. Or reach the office by calling 218-729-6697 or via e-mail at:  carol.christenson@noaa.gov.

Reprinted from the Brainerd Daily Dispatch Newspaper.  http://www.brainerddispatch.com

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