Dennis Howick of Celina checks the rain gauge near his home following a recent snowfall in the Grand Lake area. Howick took over the job as volunteer climate observer for the National Weather Service after his father, Harold Howick, retired in 2000.

A noisy goat peers out from a nearby wire pen as Dennis Howick checks his government-issued rain gauge for precipitation. His modest rural Celina farm - not unlike hundreds of others in this community - seems an unlikely place . . .