Jim Bradshaw: Pro weather watchers take over for 'oldest inhabitants'

Until well into the 1800s, the oldest people in a town or area were the keepers of weather lore. Any time there was a bitter cold snap or a big snowstorm or a flooding rain, or any other piece of unusual weather, newspapers invariably reported that none of “the oldest inhabitants” had ever seen such a thing before.
The earliest reliable weather records for most south Louisiana communities date to 1887, when R. E. Kerkam of the U. S. Signal Service began setting up a network of weather observers to keep daily logs of high and low temperatures, rainfall, and other significant observations.
The Signal Service began as a part of the army and, as its name implies, was charged with getting military information from one unit to the other, especially in time of war. Its mission took on importance to civilians in 1870, when Congress decreed that the Secretary of War had to “provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent … and for giving notice … by telegraph and marine signals of the approach and force of storms.”
Over the next decade or so Signal Service observers were placed in major cities as well as on military posts, but there were no weather watchers in smaller places until the later 1800s. About 20 states had set up networks by 1887 when Kerkam, the director at New Orleans, decided it was time for Louisiana to find local observers in every parish.
In a statement sent to newspapers across the state he enumerated a list of reasons that such a network would help practically everyone, especially planters and others dependent on good weather information.
Records compiled by the observers, he said, would give “agriculturalists” data on rainfall, frosts, and other information “invaluable in the production of crops.” Rainfall records would help engineers calculate how big sewers and drains had to be. Doctors would be able to “study disease with reliable meteorological records by their side” and provide for “preventive … sanitary measures.”
The data would be compiled into a monthly bulletin for publication in newspapers that would also report on “the actual condition of growing crops.” That last part grew in importance and the original newspaper bulletins eventually became the Louisiana Crop and Weather Review, which continues in various formats today.
Kerkam promised “the taking of … observations requires but few minutes daily and the exercise will be very agreeable and instructive.” With good participation, he said, “Louisiana will … be able to be proud of an efficient Weather Service,”
Father C. M. Widman, a Jesuit at Grand Coteau, and J.J. Davidson, “the popular agent of the S.P Railroad” in Lafayette, were among the first to sign up.
The weather service became a civilian agency on October 1, 1890, when Congress moved forecasting and reporting responsibilities to a new U.S. Weather Bureau, which was part of the Department of Agriculture. That did not change the need for local weather watchers, and they remain active today. The National Weather Service office at Lake Charles still recruits observers for places that do not have them and is currently responsible for about 70 sites.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, "Cajuns and Other Characters," is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbrad-shaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.