A man not only for sunshine – Bavaria

Willi Mehler is 84 years old and a very busy man these days. “We have until a quarter to eleven, then the next ones will come,” he lets you know when you walk through the hallway lined with six documents into his house at ten o’clock sharp. Dettelbacher Pilgrimage, Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, volunteer fire brigade, city youth band, the sports club, everything is there, Mehler has left out nothing. However, the most important document is different and hangs in the frame next to the stairs to the basement: a certificate for the award of the Federal Cross of Merit.

Five years ago, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier invited him to the handover. Mehler did not come. “Don’t be angry with me, but I’m not going to Berlin especially for that,” he said. Nonetheless, Mehler received the award for his services to the weather documentation, later with his family in the town hall of Herzogenaurach. Where he comes from. Where he lives. Always. Where he has been measuring and taking notes every morning for 44 years. Mehler is what is commonly referred to as the weatherman.

In fact, he was, because earlier this year he retired – which is what you do at 84. On the way out, into the garden, to the measuring station, he fell several times. Plus four strokes. Mehler walks with a cane, dizziness plagues him. He realized: 44 years is enough.

And so the search is now on for a successor who will take over what Mehler did every morning for more than four decades. At 6.50 a.m. in winter, at 7.50 a.m. in summer and sometimes at 10 a.m. when visitors come. Mehler gets up, this time from the chair and not from the bed, grabs his walker and carefully takes one step at a time on the way out of the living room to the covered terrace, where he has deposited a plastic tube with a scale on it. You can see from her that Mehler didn’t just buy her the day before yesterday. “I’ve been using it for 44 years,” he confirms and walks five meters further to the silver measuring station, which would pass for a garbage can with an integrated ashtray if it weren’t right next to the vegetable patch in a non-smoker’s garden.

This is now over after 44 years: Willi Mehler measuring the precipitation every morning.

(Photo: Max Weinhold)

Mehler pulls the supposed ashtray out of the narrow bin. It turns out to be a funnel that lets rainwater run down into a teapot-like vessel. Mehler grabs the vessel and pours the water into the tube. He holds his measuring instrument up to the sun and squints: “4.4 liters per square meter,” he announces, shaking the tube again to be on the safe side. Lo and behold: a few bubbles disappear from the water. “Yes, 4.3,” corrects Willi Mehler, which he is about to enter in his pad.

There he not only notes how much precipitation there has been per square meter. But also whether snow falls and how much. Whether the wind is blowing and how strong. And, if necessary: ​​whether there were any special incidents.

Like this one, for example: “July 21/22, 1992: During a heavy storm over Herzogenaurach, three people lost their lives. The torrential rain and hurricane-force gusts of thunderstorms left severe devastation in their wake. The hurricane uprooted trees and damaged many houses (roof tiles/chimneys). In the southern part of the city it was pure chaos.” That’s what it says on a sheet that Mehler filed in a file. Which in turn is stowed in a box along with three dozen year-round weather diaries. Everything must be in order. Only one thing is missing: the book from 1978, from Mehler’s first year as an observer.

There is a lack of young weather observers

At that time he was working at the Herzogenaurach sewage treatment plant, where they had always operated a weather station, Mehler and a colleague together and on the side. Until the German Weather Service (DWD) lacked an observer for the region and the mayor asked: Doesn’t Mehler want to do that? And so he observed and he informed. In the past with pen on paper and announcements on the phone, for a few years now and until recently via the internet on a tablet.

In the future, someone else will have to do it, not just in Herzogenaurach. Nationwide, the DWD reports almost 220 open observation posts at a total of 1722 stations. “However, the average age of the volunteer observers is tending to increase.” Means: offspring is missing. In Herzogenaurach, too, the search for the job, which pays 760 euros a year, is sluggish. The only applicant so far did not meet the spatial requirements: distance around the station is required so that the rain really lands in the funnel. In addition, Mehler’s successor would not have to meet “any special requirements”, but an interest in weather conditions is “desirable”. You could also say: essential.

Because without it it would hardly work: observe, day in, day out. Like clockwork. And in the literal sense of the word, because Mehler still wakes up punctually for the measurement (without an alarm clock, mind you). Now, he says, he can stay in bed a little longer when it’s raining outside. Earlier, so until three weeks ago: impossible. That would have distorted the results and possibly increased the amount of precipitation.

Herzogenaurach: Those who write stay: A look at the weather diary from 1980 and you know, for example, on which days it snowed.

Who writes, stays: A look at the weather diary from 1980 and you know, for example, on which days it snowed.

(Photo: Max Weinhold)

“This job is honesty,” says Mehler, repeating it to be on the safe side. And so you have no choice but to believe him when he claims to have always gotten up on time during his 16,000 working days. Even with a thick head after a long night: “Koi Broblem. I always liked doing that, otherwise it wouldn’t have taken so long.” His son only represented him on vacation.

Mehler can’t stop completely (yet), he continues to check every morning how much has fallen from the sky and makes a note of it. “For internal use,” as he calls it. And a bit for the outside, after all, a friend and an acquaintance now also own a measuring station: “We’ll make a phone call and compare the values.” This morning it is said to be 4.3 liters per square meter, the sun is shining. According to his taste. Well, he doesn’t really want to commit himself to his favorite weather. “Everything is perfect,” says Mehler. “Sunshine is best, but we also need rain, which is important. We have to take it as it comes.” Who would contradict him?

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