Cline Awards
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It may not be quite as glamorous as an Oscar or as prestigious as Pulitzer Prize - but if you're part of the National Weather Service, winning an Isaac M. Cline Award is a very big deal.

Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is The Weather Notebook.

The Cline awards began in 1999 to honor National Weather Service employees who make exceptional contributions to the wide-ranging enterprise of forecasting and observing our weather. Yes, Cline awards go to the crack meteorologists who consistently hit forecast bull's eyes . But winners also include technicians in charge of Doppler radar, clerks and secretaries who keep forecast offices running smoothly, and the chiefs who take the heat when a major storm is bearing down. The awards recognize excellence at the local, regional, and national levels - but national winners are the only ones who receive cash prizes of up to $5000.

Among the proudest of last year's Cline Award recipients are the staff of the tiny Data Collection Office in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii. The Hilo team won in the category of "upper air observations" for their extraordinary success in launching weather balloons into the atmosphere twice each day as part of a simultaneous worldwide data gathering network.

And who, you may be wondering, is Isaac M. Cline? When the deadliest hurricane in American history devastated the city of Galveston, Texas, in 1900, Cline was the government forecaster in charge there. Though he suffered tragic personal loss, Cline demonstrated heroic dedication to the Weather Service mission of protecting human life and property. One hundred and one years later, he remains a role model and an inspiration for Weather Service workers.

The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mt. Washington Observatory and is supported generously by Subaru of America. For more on the Cline Award recipients, Isaac Cline and the storm that made him famous, visit to our website at weathernotebook.org.