Dennis O’Keefe Memorial Lecture to focus on the Mohonk Lake Cooperative Weather Station

NEW PALTZ – Paul C. Huth, Director of Research at Mohonk Preserve, will deliver the fourth annual Dennis O’Keefe Memorial Lecture sponsored by the Friends of the Sojourner Truth Library at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 21 in the Lecture Center. His topic will be “A Century of Weather Observation at Mohonk Lake.”

The Mohonk Preserve continues to add to what is now more than 114 years of weather data. Since 1896, daily weather conditions, including temperature and precipitation, have been recorded at the Mohonk Lake Cooperative Weather Station established by the U.S. Weather Bureau. The instruments and location of the weather station have virtually stayed the same since then – providing one of the longest and most consistent weather records available. This provides the public, policymakers, and other scientists with a uniquely reliable set of data and facilitates understanding of changes both regionally and nationally.

Huth has worked on Shawangunks natural history and long term records for the last 37 years. He is currently guiding forward the use of long term studies that are being used by scientists to assess global climate change, and underpin land management practices in the Shawangunks and greater Hudson Valley. Huth will describe how the data is collected and highlight some extremes over the years. A botanist and a naturalist, Huth became a Mohonk Preserve Research Associate in Botany in 1974. He started working full-time at Mohonk in 1982 with the late Daniel Smiley (1907-1989). He was appointed Director of Research at Mohonk Preserve in 1989. Huth graduated with Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Biology/Botany from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Dennis O’Keefe (1951-2006), a beloved member of the college and local community, graduated from SUNY New Paltz in 1973. He zealously pursued a multitude of interests. The history and science of weather tracking – particularly as it related to the New Paltz area – was an interest that led him to create a weather station in the Village of New Paltz.

Refreshments will be available after the lecture. Both the lecture and the reception are free and open to the public. For more information please call 845-257-3719.