San Francisco s weather station is older, but it has moved around more and is missing data, Anderson said. The Livermore station consisting of a spaceship like digital thermometer and a stout metal funnel attached to a standard issue Coast Guard cannon shell to collect rain water has been in continual operation with few interruptions and a minimum of movement. Just in the weather data for Livermore, there are historic links to all sorts of things, said Hafner, an avid weather watcher and history buff. The daily reports show the unusual June in 1884 when Livermore got 1.73 inches of rain, and the great freeze in December 1980 that caused thousands of dollars in damage. The massive fire after the 1906 earthquake destroyed part of the Weather Bureau s records.
People start keeping weather records themselves as a hobby.
It gets handed down from generation to generation, Anderson said. As part of tradition, they want to keep it going and going. And you can see that and the former face of the Tri-Valley in the yellowing records in Hafner s neat files. Many head of livestock drowned. Snow on Livermore hills until April.