While checking the depth of Monday's new snowfall, Austin Kraklaw says, “It's a good day to live in North Dakota.”
For the past five years, Austin Kraklaw has worked at North Dakota State University's North Central Research Extension Center, south of Minot. It records the weather and sends the readings to the National Weather Service in Bismarck.
Originally, Kraklaw is from Minnesota. He came to North Dakota for college, enrolling as an engineering major at NDSU in Fargo. It was two semesters before he discovered this wasn't the career path for him. One day, he was talking to a friend whose specialty was agricultural systems management, and he saw that this sounded much better than his original plan.
He changed his major and completed his bachelor's degree in five years. After graduation, he noticed that the North Central Research Extension Center had a research specialist position open, so he applied.
He spent two years as a research specialist before Joe Evertz left the office. With him gone, someone was needed to fill the office, and that someone turned out to be Kraklaw. Although he doesn't have much choice in the matter, he said he enjoys what he does.
Every morning, as part of his job at the research center, he checks the equipment outside his office and measures temperature, precipitation levels, humidity, wind speed and ground frost depth. Kraklaw said he usually spends about 10 minutes outside each morning, checking all of his equipment and collecting his readings to send to the NWS office in Bismarck.
Austin Crackle collects a snow sample using the tube from a rain gauge on Monday after a snowfall on Sunday.
In front of the Agricultural Research Center, a metal can is left on a stand inside a ring covered with triangular metal pieces hanging from the ring. The can is used to collect moisture to determine the amount of fall. Triangles were once used to figure out which direction the wind was blowing before technology took over at the airport.
The precipitation scale has been described as “embarrassed” And “In the shape of a spaceship” By karklaw. Precipitation falls into a container placed on a scale inside the device. This allows the National Weather Service to know exactly when it will rain.
On the side of the building is the thermometer, which looks like a small lantern on a 6-foot pole, sending the temperature to a black box in Kraklaw's office, where he writes down the times they change to find the high and low temperature. Low for today.
During the winter months when things slow down a bit, Kraklaw said he helps out where he can. The greenhouse contains seeds that the center grows in its research into which pesticides and herbicides work on which plants. Equipment sometimes breaks down, so having the extra time gives him a chance to help work on things to get them back up and running more quickly.
Instead of measuring rainfall levels, he uses a special stick to measure snow. His usual testing ground is the parking lot, which is flat and cleaned regularly, making it much easier and more accurate for new snow to fall.
Ciara Parizek/MDN Austin Kraklaw of North Dakota State University's Research Extension Center takes a snow core tube to the lab to see how much snow falls.
The stick looks like a ruler, but all intervals are measured in tenths.
If the parking lot is not cleared before the storm, a snow core must be collected in a tall metal can, melted in a laboratory, and then measured to get an estimate of how much moisture is on the ground in the form of snow.
Every time there is new snowfall, he must go out and take a new sample of the snow core, then repeat the measurement process.
He also uses a frost gauge, which is a plastic tube of water inserted into a pipe in the ground. The water in the tube freezes to show how deep the frost is. The two easiest ways to check are to check the water to see where it stops freezing, or to cut the ice inside the pipe until the end is found.
According to Kraklau, collecting snow cores and frost readings helps the National Weather Service forecast flood risks that could result from melting snow.
Minot International Airport has an Automatic Weather Observing Service (AWOS) that measures wind direction and speed in knots, visibility (how far a person can see), cloud coverage, temperature and dew point in degrees Celsius and barometric pressure in inches. from Mercury. It automatically records all information every five minutes.
Crackle's job is more complicated than that, as you have to spend time outside, manually recording things and sending them out. By taking the extra time to actually go out and collect samples, Kraklaw ensures that the numbers the NWS provides to the public are accurate and up-to-date.
The temperature in February is above the long-term average
Last month of February, the average temperature was 25.4 degrees, which is 13.3 degrees warmer than the long-term 117-year average of 12.1 degrees, according to Austin Craklaw of the North Central Extension Research Center, south of Minot.
The lowest temperature for the month was -6 degrees on February 16, and the highest temperature was 53 degrees on February 27, Kraklaw said.
Total humidity for the month was 0.49 inches, which was 0.01 inches below the long-term average of 0.50 inches.
Snow total for the month was 2.7 inches, three inches below the long-term average of 5.7 inches, Craklaw said.
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While checking the depth of Monday's new snowfall, Austin Kraklaw says, “It's a good day to live in North Dakota.”
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Austin Crackle collects a snow sample using the tube from a rain gauge on Monday after a snowfall on Sunday.
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Ciara Parizek/MDN Austin Kraklaw of North Dakota State University's Research Extension Center takes a snow core tube to the lab to see how much snow falls.
