OFFERLE ? When the men from the National Weather Service drove into Jack Kersting’s farmyard 35 years ago, they asked whether he would do them a favor.

The good deed became a daily commitment.

Each morning after some form of precipitation has fallen, whether in the form of rain or snow, Kersting steps out the front door of his farmhouse on the Ford/Edwards County line and checks the standard rain gauge that has been a fixture at his home all these years.

The tall, steel cylinder on a stand might be confused for some type of yard ornament. But inside the National Weather Service cylinder is a container that holds up to 24 inches of moisture. In the past three and a half decades, the largest rainfall amount measured was 5.5 inches.

The Kersting farm is just one of 53 cooperative weather sites in Kansas, and one of 11,000 across the country. At each of these locations, weather observers assist the National Weather Service, said Dodge City’s Observing Program leader, Jesse Lee.

Over the years, some of the observers have passed the job down through generations in their family, like the Jennison family of Healy, whose members have been gathering weather data for more than 100 years. There are others like Ella Mae Julian in rural Stanton County, who has been observing the weather since 1944, and Joy Cudney, northeast of Trousdale, who’s been at the job since 1949.

“Finding a family stable enough to be in the same place that long is rare,” said Larry Ruthi, director of Dodge City’s National Weather Service office.

The first extensive network of cooperative stations was set up as a result of an 1890 act of Congress that led to the establishment of the Weather Bureau. In the Dodge City NOAA area, one of the oldest weather stations recording was at Fort Atkinson, along the Santa Fe Trail, west of Dodge City. Weather observations were taken there for three years.

Weather observers like Kersting, living out in the middle of nowhere, offer unofficial records not hampered by urban sprawl or changing land use.

While the meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Dodge City rely on satellite and radar images, Ruthi said being able to talk to the observers in real time allows them to make valid decisions on such things as the magnitude of floods.

What impresses Ruthi is the level of dedication with all the weather observers they count on to keep records. That’s how it was with Jack and Marilyn Kersting. Over the years they’ve learned that when a 3- or 4-inch rain occurs, the creek floods and blocks the roads.

A bigger challenge than measuring the rain comes in measuring snow. The dutiful Jack crawls out of a warm bed before 7 a.m., bundles up and heads out the door. He uses a snowboard, a flat Plexiglas board about 2 feet square, which is laid on the ground. Then he turns the tall cylinder over to collect the snow. When he brings it into the house, the snow melts to a measurable liquid.

In 35 years, Marilyn has never complained about her husband bringing snow into the house, he said.