By Christi Baron
WE HAVE ALL heard the rhyme, “April showers bring May flowers.”
It is a popular thing to say and hear around springtime and is believed to have originated in the 1500s.
However, if you live in Forks what are the rhymes for the rest of our wet months?
Perhaps “November drenching leaves me trenching?”
Or maybe “December flood bring on the mud?”
There is a West End family that has been measuring the showers, drenchings, floods and temperatures for almost 100 years — and they have not missed a day.
The first weather station was established in Forks on Nov. 1, 1907.
There were eight different observers from 1907 until 1927, when 15-year-old Olive Ford took over the weather station.
Ford’s grandparents, Esther and Luther Ford, arrived on the Forks prairie in January 1878.
They had come from a short stay in Seattle, where they had been offered a 40-acre piece of land in what is now downtown Seattle for $400.
They heard that the Quillayute country was being opened for homesteaders.
After a rough trip that included a sailboat, Native American canoe, a six-week wait through bad weather at Neah Bay and an oxen-pulled sled, they arrived on the Forks prairie with $7, some borrowed chickens and their personal possessions.
They laid claim to their new home on the east side of what is now Forks.
Olive’s father, Ollie Ford, was the first white child born on the Forks Prairie.
In 1907, Ollie married Hope Nichols and brought her to live on the Ford homestead.
Beginning on Sept. 8, 1927, and for the next six years and six months, their daughter Olive kept the weather statistics.
With her marriage to Glen King and starting her own family, she turned the weather station over to her mother, Hope Ford, who for the next 28 years kept the records.
On Nov. 30, 1962, at the age of 79, Hope turned it back over to her daughter, Olive. Olive kept the records again from Dec. 1, 1962, until Nov. 30, 1972.
On Dec. 1, 1972, Olive’s son, Jerry King, began his time as weather keeper and continues his family’s tradition today.
In the King’s home, located on a portion of the original homestead, you will find the weather control center.
The rainfall and high and low temperatures are taken each day at 4 p.m.
King said that in earlier days, the information was written on a ledger and mailed once a month to the National Weather Service.
Now King enters the data on a Web site.
He is proud to say he has never missed a day. And even has received recognition for this amazing record.
Since official records have been taken, the record rainfall for 24 hours is 8.85 inches on Nov. 3, 1955.
The record high rainfall for one year was 162.14 inches in 1997.
The highest one-month total was in January 1953 with 41.70 inches.
There have been months with absolutely no recorded rainfall: August 1916 and July 1922.
In addition to sending weather information to the National Weather Service, King sends weather updates to the Forks Forum weekly newspaper.
“April showers bring May flowers” is a reminder that even the most unpleasant things — in this case the heavy rains of April — can bring about very enjoyable things- in this case, an abundance of flowers in May.
So what are the other lessons to be learned during the rest of the long months of rain on the West End?
How about: Put your head down and run.
