Fall 2008

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Nation's First Extension Climatologist Gives Voice to Weather

Elwynn Taylor is well known for his educational and entertaining presentations, like this one at the 2008 Farm Progress Show.

As well-known as Elwynn Taylor is, he maintains his father, Sterling Taylor, is still better known in agronomy circles.

The younger Taylor, whose name also is Sterling, started using his middle name, Elwynn, to avoid confusion with his father, a professor of soil physics at Utah State and head of the Department of Soils and BioMeteorology. But the editor of the Agronomy Journal "corrected" the authorship of a paper Elwynn submitted in 1965. "My first publication came out as one of my father's," he says.

He and his father had planned to work on projects together, but his father died before Elwynn finished graduate school, more than 40 years ago. After earning his doctorate, Taylor served in the Army for three years as a meterologist, then worked for the National Weather Service for six years based at Auburn University.

Taylor joined the agronomy department at Iowa State in 1979 as the first extension climatologist in the nation, and probably the world, he says. The federal government, which had provided each state with a meteorologist, eliminated the positions in the early '70s because of budget cuts. That left a gap in weather information that Iowa State filled when it hired Taylor. Other states followed.

Growing up in the small Utah town of River Heights City, Taylor spent a great deal of time outdoors. He recalled being fascinated by the power of the weather.

"That was my main interest from childhood: How does weather affect plants and animals? The influence of the weather on biological beings has always been my interest," he says.

That interest also helps explain Taylor's popularity. During Iowa's drought year of 1988, his name was on the front page of The Des Moines Register more times than the governor's.

"Everyone's interested in the weather and how it affects their plans and affects their lives," Taylor says. "There's a great monetary value, we think, to the rural people and an emotional and educational value to everyone."

With the reorganization that led to the development of the Iowa Public Radio network, a Friday noontime call-in show featuring Taylor on WOI Radio ended. After more than 25 years on the radio station, Taylor is philosophical. "I owe them (WOI) nothing but a great vote of thanks. Twenty-five years is a long time for a single program to exist on radio or television," he says.

Taylor's knowledge and distinctive delivery gained a loyal audience that extended beyond the farm. A well-developed memory - he says he can remember the 14 phone numbers he's had since childhood - helps him recall weather data. He says he used to talk faster, but slowed down when he noticed international students could understand him better that way.

He acknowledges his voice is well-known, but doesn't consider himself a celebrity. However, the public may disagree. Requests for speeches keep him on the road many nights of the week - mostly in Iowa, but also in several states and foreign countries. "Typically, I work a 10-hour day and give talks to the public at night. Maybe five or six nights of the week I'm giving talks," Taylor says.

He also has time for research, studying how weather moves plant disease, such as soybean rust, around the planet and affects disease development. He also teaches three graduate-level courses: Agronomy 503 Crop Weather, Agronomy 508 Biophysical Crop Ecology and Agronomy 541 Weather and Crop Production.

When asked about the weather, he mentions a constant amid the daily variations. "Weather changes. Climate always has changed. Climate always will change. When I was a graduate student, the question was how fast is it changing, how much is it changing. That's still the question."