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Glasgow weather observer Julian Kesterson was recognized recently for his 55 years of continual service to the National Weather Service’s Cooperative Weather Observer program.
Kesterson, recipient of the NWS Thomas Jefferson Award in 2021, was honored earlier during the Covid pandemic in a virtual ceremony but was more recently lauded at an in-person ceremony. Kesterson was also a recipient of the John Campanius Award for weather observations in 2016 During his 55 years of service to the NWS, he has a perfect/unbroken string of precipitation observations – he has done this continuously since September of 1967. His weather observations actually preceded his work for NWS – he began making weather observations on his own initiative several years earlier.
“And it’s that initiative that proves Mr. Kesterson has had weather and climate in his heart during his entire life,” said Nick Fillo, service hydrologist for NWS who took part in the ceremony honoring Kesterson. “During our conversations, he often recounts stories of his early childhood when, during the wintertime, he would often ask his father if it was going to snow at their home. If the answer was yes, then he would often wait by the window for the snow to begin. And that passion continues to today, where he’ll often sit on his porch simply to watch the weather come and go around him.”
Fillo said his periodic visits to Kesterson’s home “are always very special. He has several weather instruments at his station, many of which he’s purchased on his own over the years. And though many of them have been exposed to the elements for decades, these instruments are so well-maintained that they are in just as good of shape today as they were when first installed.”
During one such visit, Fillo and Kesterson walked to a “benign-looking creek” on Kesterson’s property, which in June of 1995, “turned into a raging river when 13.4 inches of rain fell during a two-day period, destroying a portion of his driveway.” That was just one of the more memorable weather phenomena Kesterson has observed over the years.
During these periodic visits to Kesterson’s Rockbridge County home, NWS officials inspect his equipment and are shown his hand-drawn charts depicting annual average temperature trends over the past several decades that he’s made with his own data. Displayed in his office are past awards and photographs of visits to the NWS office in Blacksburg. On a nearby shelf are dozens of binders where he’s documented his daily observations over the years.
“And it’s in his office where we’ll discuss different articles and studies he’s read concerning weather,” said Fillo. “For those that have never met him, simply-put: Mr. Kesterson is one of the finest weather observers in the history of the Cooperative Weather Observer Program. And the irony of this is that he makes it look easy, and we truly believe it’s because he’s embraced the principle that all people who’ve accomplished great things have embraced, and that’s to take something that you are passionate about, and simply spend the rest of your life perfecting it.”
