Nova Scotian keeps eye on weather with 40 years of dedicated notes

One Maritimer has taken notes on the weather for more than 40 years.

For more than 40 years, Leon Levy has looked off the coast of Harrigan Cove, N.S., and made notes about the weather of the day.

The routine started on Jan. 1, 1984, when his lobster fisherman father requested he take an observation on the weather in order to help with the family business.

“I come from a fishing family and my father suggested to me ... ‘You should start recording the weather,’ and I’ve done it every single day since then,” says Levy.

According to his notes, Jan. 1, 1984 was a mostly sunny day with a few clouds and a few flurries.

Levy says he enjoys the commitment and task of taking a daily weather observation. He has meticulously noted them on calendars year after year and recently transitioned them into a digital record.

“What I start doing, I’m really loyal to what I do,” he says. “It’s part of my day now.”

He’s recorded changes in temperatures on charts and graphs over the years, marking the coldest and hottest days along with ice storms and hurricanes.

“In 1986 we had a major freezing rain storm here and it cut the power for the better part of three days ... 1991 we had one of our warmest days,” notes Levy.

Recently his observations have begun to assist other organizations. He’s now a member of a non-profit volunteer group of weather observers known as the Community Collaborative Rain, Hails, and Snow Network, or CoCoRaHS Network.

Volunteers are trained to take a once-a-day observation of things such as 24-hour rain or snow amounts. It can help fill in the gaps for meteorologists.

He is also involved in a program observing changes to the coastline by citizen scientists supported by Dalhousie University.

“We were asked to partner with Dalhousie University … to start doing this for the whole Eastern Shore so we are the first on the shore that hopefully will be expanding to the whole shore within the next year or two," says Levy.

The program is supervised by Camilo M. Botero, PhD, an associate researcher with the Department of Industrial Engineering.

Botero says Levey has been one of their most active members. The program is hoping to expand its presence on the Eastern Shore.

The Levy family is still very much in the lobster fishing business and Leon isn’t planning to take his eyes off the skies anytime soon.

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