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Source: American News, Aberdeen, S.self storageD.Sept. 22--Out of more than 10,000 volunteers who send weather data to the National Weather Service, two of the most dependable volunteers in the nation live about 15 minutes apart from each other.Marvin Seyer of Ipswich and Leland Treichel of Roscoe were each presented with an award from the weather service for their consistency and commitment to providing the weather service with accurate data."They are responsible for giving us the high and low temperature and the precipitation reports 365 days a year," said Tim Kearns, data acquisition program manager for the weather service in Aberdeen. Leland hasn't missed an observation in 24 years, Marvin hasn't missed one in 38 years."On Sept. 3, Treichel, a real estate broker, insurance agent and the Edmunds County emergency manager, was one of 17 people to earn the John Campanius Holm Award, which is granted each year to a maximum of 25 observers for outstanding accomplishments in the field of cooperative observing. A person must spend at least 20 years running a cooperative weather station to be eligible to win the award.One week later, on Sept. 10, Seyer, a retired school teacher from Ipswich High School, was one of five people nationwide who received the Thomas Jefferson Award, the highest honor the weather service can bestow. To win the Jefferson award, a person must have already won the Holm award then spend a minimum of five years running a cooperative weather station. Seyer won the Holm award in 2006.Treichel and Holm were honored with a ceremony by the weather service, a plaque and had the day named in their honor by Gov. Dennis Daugaard."It's a routine, like having a daily cup of coffee," Seyer said.Each of their routines is slightly different. Treichel takes his measurements at 7 a.m. each morning, while Seyer takes his at 10 p.m. just before his bedtime. But they have always collected the data. Day after day, year after year."You don't have too many people stay with it," Seyer said.They use similar equipment, each of them has a solar-protected so they can record the air temperature without being affected by direct sunlight and a collection tube to check how much precipitation fell during the previous 24 hours. The only difference is Treichel bought an anemometer to track wind, which Seyer does not have.Each of them have made arrangements in case they have to go out of town or are unable to collect the data for some reason. Treichel said he has several neighbors he can depend on and Seyer said he can rely on his son-in-law or daughter-in-law if necessary.Year after yearTheir levels of dedication, consistency and organization are not traits limited to their weather data collection. It's embedded in their personalities.When Treichel, now 62, was growing up, his best friend's father had houses for purple martins. He used to watch them fly in his friend's backyard and decided he wanted to have purple martins, so 24 years ago he bought purple martin housing.Because purple martins are notoriously picky when it comes to choosing a nesting site, it was 12 years before the first birds established a nest, but for 11 consecutive years he maintained the housing and researched ways to attract them.This year, Treichel said he had 136 adult birds that hatched 278 babies. Watching them fly around with his wife, Tracy, gives the couple a great deal of joy."We spend hours sitting on the deck and watching them," he said.Inside the Ipswich High School's gym lobby is an example of Seyer's dedication. In 1975, Seyer, who 迷你倉tarted teaching social studies in 1964, established what he calls the athletics "hall of fame" and has kept up with it since.He helped established the criteria to make the hall of fame. An athlete must earn 10 athletic letters, make All-State or complete sport-specific achievements."We have a lot of recognition for our athletes. We display everything," Seyer said. "Too many schools keep their trophies in the coaches' office or a trophy room."The criteria is displayed in the lobby to give athletes a goal to aspire to, Seyer said. He is particularly proud of his idea to make sure three of an athlete's academic letters must be earned in their senior year, to keep them motivated in their final year of high school.Need more evidence? Go to Ipswich's Homecoming Day parade, which Seyer has organized every year since it was re-established in 1992. Or look at the walls inside Treichel's office, which are adorned with all sorts of plaques acknowledging decades of service as an insurance agent, emergency manager, notary public and a home inspector.Observer storiesWith more than 60 years of weather observations combined, Seyer and Treichel can remember some crazy weather, the type that makes South Dakotans snicker at people new to the state who claim they're used to cold weather.One of the most memorable experiences Seyer had was on Dec. 23, 1983. That night was one of the coldest he can remember."It was so cold, the bottom fell out of the thermometer," he said. "usually when you have a real cold night, you don't have any wind, but that night we had something like a 40 mph wind."After midnight, the air temperature dropped to 40 degrees below zero, but felt like 80 degrees below zero because of the wind chill factor, he said.He said he can remember the night so vividly because he and his wife, Judy, hosted a Christmas party that night and his guests had to walk outside routinely."The guests had to go out and start their car about every half-hour just to make sure their car would start when it was time to leave," Seyer said.That was one of the scariest nights he can remember, but there were two blessings that night, Seyer said. The first was that there wasn't much snow on the ground, so cars weren't stuck. The second was that the electricity stayed on."It was a miracle with that kind of wind, we wouldn't have a power outage," he said.Since Treichel is a trained weather spotter and the Edmunds County Emergency Manager, his most memorable experience with weather wasn't extreme cold or heat. It was chasing a tornado.In 2010, Treichel and his wife hopped in their pickup truck to track a tornado that had torn up several farms near Bowdle.He had a dash camera in his pickup and took a video of the tornado. which he said was almost a mile wide.Although he'd seen the video before, he was still awed by the tornados' size and how close he and his wife were to it before they turned back.He said the video was shown at an emergency managers conference, which was a proud moment for him.Treichel said his goal is to eventually win the Thomas Jefferson award, as Seyer had, but that there was still a long way to go.Seyer wasn't able to explain why he kept sending weather observations records for so long. It just never crossed his mind to stop."I don't think about why I should do something," he said. "I just figured why not."Follow @SFeldman_AAN on Twitter.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the American News (Aberdeen, S.D.) Visit the American News (Aberdeen, S.D.) at .aberdeennews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services文件倉