Records of the Northern New England Weather Center

Franklin Fairbanks was an avid amateur naturalist who kept concise records at his family home, Underclyffe, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. When the Fairbanks Museum was built in 1891, he continued his work, and, in 1894, set up an observation station at the Museum and began to share his information with the National Weather Service Bureau. In the late 1940's, Fairbanks Museum Director Fred Mold added radio broadcasting to the weather recording functions. Taking advantage of important new technology, newly available to the northern Vermont region, Mold initiated 3 minute weather reports three times daily on radio station WTWN (now WSTJ 1340 AM). Part of the popularity of these early broadcasts came from Mold's folksy style, with weather interspersed with local stories, bird calls and nature lore. With regional corporate funding for new state-of-the-art facilities, the Museum created The Northern New England Weather Center (NNEWC) in January 1986. Staffed by professional meteorologists trained at Lyndon State College, Mark Breen and Steve Maleski, the Museum began an alliance with the College and its worldwide computer and satellite weather data service. The NNEWC continues to create accurate, local weather forecasts covering the tri-state region of Vermont, New Hampshire, and upper New York, and adjacent areas in the US and Canada. NNEWC has provided contracted weather services to commercial and public radio stations (including Vermont Public Radio) with a listener base of over three million, plus regional ski resorts, public utility corporations and private professional firms.