By Sam Parsons

KBOE Radio received the Honored Institution Award yesterday from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The station received the award for 50 years of weather observations with the National Weather Service. Marvin Pershe, a meteorologist and co-op program manager for the NWS, sat down with the No Coast Network and explained that co-op observers like KBOE voluntarily record weather data and send it to the NWS.

Pershe said that co-op observers play a valuable role in getting information to the NWS that they wouldn’t be able to easily obtain otherwise, and that can even help with ensuring daily forecasts are accurate.

Pershe said that most counties in Iowa have at least one co-op observer, and that over 200 co-op observers are active in the state.