Barb Nichols doesn’t need to read the paper, watch TV news or consult online weather sites to know how much rain has fallen in Manitou Springs during recent deluges, or how hard the wind blew or how low the temperatures dipped.

She needed only check her own weather station at her Manitou Springs home.

And while many wondered if records were being broken, Barb simply checked her own data, including hand-written charts and graphs from volumes of data kept in binders and boxes in her home.

Barb has one of the most extensive archives of weather data in the region, dating to 1971 when her late husband Jim Nichols began a hobby dabbling in the weather. (Actually, that’s like saying Peyton Manning dabbles in throwing touchdowns.)

Jim was a full-blown weather maniac. If it involved rain, snow, wind or hail, Jim measured, studied and compiled detailed records of it.

“He loved the weather,” Barb said of her husband, who was a research scientist 31 years at Kaman Science Corp. “If he’d had a choice, Jim would have become a meteorologist.”

Recognizing his interest, Barb bought Jim a kit so he could build his own weather station. The year was 1971 and soon he was a member of the Association of American Weather Observers, reporting his readings each month.

Jim tracked temperatures. He measured precipitation whether it was rain, snow, hail, ice pellets. He precisely marked an “X” on a chart if there was thunder, fog, hail, glaze, damaging winds or ice pellets. He charted barometric highs and lows, wind speeds, gusts and pressure readings.

In winter, he soldered together two coffee cans to catch snow. Then he melted what he caught, poured the water in a rain gauge and used a formula to calculate the exact precipitation.

Soon, Jim became an official reporting station for the National Weather Service in Pueblo and he reported to the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.

And he kept all his data, filling binders and boxes and computer files.

He couldn’t understand why everyone didn’t share his passion.

“He couldn’t believe everyone didn’t watch the weather and keep track like him,” Barb said.

Even when they went on vacations, the measurements continued.

“I’d have to get my sister or a neighbor to keep all his measurements while we were gone,” Barb said. “He was very serious about his weather-keeping.”

So serious he obtained a sophisticated recording device from Kaman and mounted it in their home, tracking temperatures 24-7 on circular graph paper that he changed every Monday. Precisely at 10 p.m.

He erected a wind anemometer on the roof and another in a field behind their house. He put up multiple thermometers and rain gauges. And he wrote everything down.

Then, around 2007, he became ill. Lung and brain cancer.

Still, he kept observing and measuring and calculating the weather. Even installed a new state-of-the-art weather station.

But he never quite finished. He never got the self-dumping rain gauge working before he died in 2009.

In his absence, Barb, his wife of 53 years, has carried on.

“Jim and I had the same interests,” Barb said. “We liked the weather, baseball and football. Vacationing.

“And I like to keep track of the weather.”

To a point.

She no longer records the precise observations in all the categories Jim loved to follow.

Barb didn’t realize the extent of his data keeping until after his death when she was going through his files.

“It was sump pump data for 1999,” Barb said with a laugh. “Who does that?”

For the record, due to all the recent rain, Barb’s sump pump is running day and night. If anyone out there is keeping track.

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A highlight of Jim Nichols’ hobby as a weather observer for the National Weather Service was witnessing and photographing this tornado that struck Manitou Springs on June 25, 1979. The tornado is seen forming over the home he shared with wife, Barb. It touched down in Memorial Park, damaging trees and power lines, damaged a home in Crystal Park and destroyed a gas station in Colorado Springs. Bill Vogrin / The Gazette

Bill Vogrin – Side Streets

Barb Nichols, seen May 22, 2015, describes an industrial weather gauge her late husband, Jim, acquired and installed in their Manitou Springs home as part of his hobby as a weather observer. The gauge tracked temperatures 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on circular graph paper that had to be changed once a week. Jim kept precise weather data from 1971 until his death in 2009. Barb has carried on his tradition since. Bill Vogrin / The Gazette

Barb Nichols, seen May 22, 2015, points to weather data kept by her late husband, Jim, at their Manitou Springs home as part of his hobby as a weather observer. Jim tracked temperatures, wind, rain, snow and other precise weather data from 1971 until his death in 2009. Barb has carried on his tradition since. Bill Vogrin / The Gazette

Jim Nichols built an elaborate weather station, seen May 22, 2015, at the Manitou Springs home he shared with his wife, Barb. As part of his hobby as a weather observer. Jim tracked temperatures, wind, rain, snow and other precise weather data from 1971 until his death in 2009. Barb has carried on his tradition since. Bill Vogrin / The Gazette

Jim Nichols