Raindrops keep falling on his head, but 78-year-old Gilroy
resident John W. Scherrer doesn’t seem to mind.
In fact, rain is something Scherrer looks forward to every
morning at 8am, when he steps into his backyard and measures the
previous day’s rain from two gauges, one in the center of the yard
and one in the north end.
Raindrops keep falling on his head, but 78-year-old Gilroy resident John W. Scherrer doesn’t seem to mind.
In fact, rain is something Scherrer looks forward to every morning at 8am, when he steps into his backyard and measures the previous day’s rain from two gauges, one in the center of the yard and one in the north end. He then enters the neat, black numbers into the designated lines in one of two rainfall logs.
It’s a tradition Scherrer has maintained since just after World War II. Also sandwiched between the pages of his two record books are Gilroy’s rain totals from almost 130 years ago.
Scherrer’s acute interest in rain, perhaps bizarre to some, dates back to his days at the Piters-Wheeler Seed Co. in Gilroy, where he worked for 30 years. The company started keeping rain records in 1930, and when Scherrer was hired in 1950, he took over the duty. The hobby stuck with him.
“Ever since I retired, it’s something I’ve kept interested in,” he said. “I like it.”
Scherrer’s records from 1876 to 1930 come from original copies of The Dispatch that Scherrer also keeps, well preserved, in his two binders. He doesn’t have any definite plans for the journals but said he’d consider donating them to the Gilroy Museum. For now, and for as long as he’s able, he said he’ll continue marking the rain in his own conscientious manner.
According to Scherrer’s records, last month was the second wettest October since 1876, dumping a total of 4.3 inches of rain on Gilroy – 1.19 inches less than the wettest October Scherrer has tabs on, in 1889.
Twice in recent years, Scherrer and his rain records have been called into local court cases to help dispute claims that personal property was damaged by heavy rainfall. Scherrer’s records helped prove the rainfall was not as heavy as the parties claimed, and both parties ended up losing their cases, Scherrer said.
Occasionally, the Gilroy Rotary Club and the Gilroy Elks Lodge call Scherrer asking for the rain totals for that particular day or month. But Scherrer chuckles at the thought that some might consider him a rain expert – a title he certainly doesn’t hold himself to.
“It’s just a hobby, and I’m no authority,” he said. “It’s just something I like, a kind of fun thing to do.”
One thing Scherrer does not do is predict the weather, although he said he does make it a point to watch the forecast on the evening news.
“I stay away from predicting the rain myself,” he said. “All I do is measure.”
Generally, the pattern Scherrer has noticed is if Octobers get a lot of rain, the subsequent wet seasons do, too – and Scherrer expects this winter to be wet, as forecasters have predicted. A normal wet season is about 21 inches, he said.
“I hope (the forecasters) are right,” he said. “If you go by the wet Octobers, over the past years, this one should be wet. I hope so.”
Scherrer’s rain total for Wednesday was two hundreths of an inch, exactly matching measurements from the National Weather Service.
Scherrer might be busy today, but he should be able to relax this weekend. According to the NWS, today will be partly cloudy with a chance of showers and highs in the mid-60s. Saturday will be mostly sunny with a high of 60 degrees, and Sunday will be partly cloudy with a high 65 degrees.
Comparing rainfall records (inches):
Scherrer Weather Service
October 2003 .25 .25
October 2002 0 0
October 2001 .5 .28
October 2000 3.66 3.18
