Status: 09.12.2023, 18:36 PM
By: Christiane Breitenberger
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How much did it snow? Sabine Haas from Erdweg knows it well. She measures the amount of precipitation for the German Weather Service every day with her measuring container in the garden. © Roswitha Höltl
How much did it rain? A woman from Erdweg knows. Sabine Haas (54) has been an observer for the German Weather Service (DWD) for almost ten years.
County – She won't forget that one day. What came down back then – not normal. When Sabine Haas checked her measuring cup in May 2019, she had to look twice. It rained 60 litres per square metre at that time. Within a day.
The day always starts with a surprise
Her day always starts the same way – but what she finds is always a surprise. How much has it snowed or rained in the past 24 hours? Sabine Haas knows. Exactly. Because: The Erdweger is a weather observer for the German Weather Service. Honorary.
Your job is to accurately log each day. Monotonous? By no means? Even after nine years, Sabine Haas is "still curious to see what the measurements will reveal," says the 54-year-old. For example, after a thunderstorm. "Even if you can see that it rained a lot today" – in the end she is always curious "how many liters it actually was," says Haas.
The data measured on site and the observations are used by the national weather service for weather forecasts or expert reports in the event of weather damage, explains Birgit Werrbach from the DWD: The data also help to accurately record climate change in Germany and to be able to better assess its consequences.
In winter, service at 6.50 a.m.
And this is how Sabine Haas' work for the DWD works: In the morning – at 6:50 a.m. in winter, 7:50 a.m. in summer – Sabine Haas goes to the weather station in her garden. There is a container that collects the precipitation of the past 24 hours. The weather observer pours this container into a measuring cup and then knows exactly: that's how much it rained yesterday. But sometimes it's not quite so easy to tip it into the measuring cup. If the liquid is frozen, for example. "Then I have to let the precipitation thaw in the house first," explains Haas. Not in the microwave, of course. "Then something would evaporate and the result would be falsified." As soon as Sabine Haas knows the data, she enters the corresponding quantities on the computer and transmits them to the DWD.
When it snows – as it has done in the past few days – Sabine Haas has another task. She has to measure how much it has snowed in the past 24 hours. The "total snow depth on Saturday was 36 centimeters," Haas knows. One is to "determine the degree of snow cover" and the other is to "measure the snow depth," explains Haas.
Sabine Haas takes these measurements every day. There are only exceptions when she goes on holiday – "then I can submit a collective report". Nevertheless, in all these years, she has never thought about quitting. "I'm happy to do that. I find that very interesting," she emphasizes.
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Sabine Haas has not been able to observe that the precipitation in our district has changed significantly in the past nine years. "When it comes to the annual values, the differences aren't that big," she says. She is concerned about "the climate in general". She is concerned about the heavy rainfall events and dry spells in many areas of Germany and the world.
In the district, there is only Sabine Haas as a weather observer. After the death of an observer in Altomünster, the DWD is now looking for a successor for the measuring station there.
You can read more news from the Dachau region here.