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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Faithful Embarrass weather watcher calls it a career

Roland Fowler was a staple on local and national news as he reported on the region’s bone-chilling temperatures; new weather recorder set to take over

Jodi Summit
Posted 4/4/18

EMBARRASS- Roland “Charlie” Fowler really enjoys the cold weather. And in his slow but animated drawl, he loves talking about it. Fowler has become a staple on local and national weather …

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Faithful Embarrass weather watcher calls it a career

Roland Fowler was a staple on local and national news as he reported on the region’s bone-chilling temperatures; new weather recorder set to take over

Posted

EMBARRASS- Roland “Charlie” Fowler really enjoys the cold weather. And in his slow but animated drawl, he loves talking about it. Fowler has become a staple on local and national weather broadcasts as the face and voice of Embarrass, which relishes the spotlight when its temperatures dip down below what most of the country considers habitable.

Embarrass is mostly known for two things: its historic Finnish log buildings, and its bone-chilling weather.

Fowler has been faithfully recording the weather in the “cold spot” for over 30 years, the last 20 of which he has been an official weather observer for the National Weather Service. As part of this job, he records each day’s high and low temperature, along with any precipitation, which then becomes a part of the official weather record.

“Every major network has been up here,” said Fowler, who has also talked on the air with Garrison Keillor and Jimmy Kimmel.

“It’s been interesting,” he said, “and Embarrass gets a lot of publicity out of it.”

Fowler is turning 86 later this year, and said it was time to turn the job over to somebody else.

“I didn’t know how long I could keep going out through the snow to read the temperatures,” he said.

The job, of course, is totally volunteer, though the weather service provides the equipment and training.

Fowler needed to make sure that the new official weather spot would record the same achingly cold temperatures as at his house. Tower, which holds the official Minnesota state cold temperature record of -60 degrees F, recorded in 1996 at Kathy Hoppa’s home on Hwy. 135, found that its official temperatures rose a few degrees when the official weather station was moved (after Hopppa retired from her official weather observer stint) to a house that sits a bit higher in elevation.

Fowler found the perfect recruits in Tanaya and Cody Wills, who own Trapline Convenience and Liquor Store, located on Hwy. 21, a stone’s throw from Fowler’s house.

“Our temperatures have been within a single degree of each other,” Fowler said.

Tanaya Wills said they will be ready to take over the duties once the station is moved over and they receive the necessary training. The couple keeps pretty busy running the store, which they have owned the last four years, but are sure they will have time for their new weather-related duties. Trapline is the new meeting spot in Embarrass, with a convenience and liquor store, and is open daily.

Moving the official weather equipment to the Trapline location means that Embarrass temperatures will be reported right away, via computer, and Embarrass will make the news more often. Fowler was not able to record his temperatures online, and had to phone in his readings, which meant they weren’t available early in the morning for the weather broadcasts.

The actual move will need to wait until the snow is melted, so the equipment can be dug out at Fowler’s and moved to the Trapline.

“It’s time to turn the reins over to somebody else,” he said. “I am getting slowed down by my age and I can’t do all the things I want to do.” Fowler is also putting in his final year as a volunteer for the Embarrass Region Fair, and figures he has volunteered for the fair the last 40 years. This year, he was still out pounding the pavement selling the ads for the fair book, another volunteer gig he will be giving up this year. He has also been a 30-plus year member of the Embarrass-Vermillion Credit Union board, serving as chairman for the last 10 years.

Fowler admits he has gotten more than his share of attention over the years. And he still is upset that an equipment malfunction meant that Embarrass did not get an official reading the morning that Tower hit -60 degrees. A Taylor thermometer that hit -64 degrees that morning by Timber Hall was sent in to be calibrated and shown to be accurate. But that temperature could not be officially recorded.

Fowler said the new thermometer system can read temperatures as low as -100 degrees.

“I hope nobody ever has to read that!” he said.

Fowler said Embarrass hasn’t seen a real cold stretch in a while. But when it does get cold, he often fields phone calls, a job that will soon move to the Wills family.