Russell Russ Has Written his 200^th Norfolk Weather Column for Norfolk Now

By David Beers

What do you get when you combine a wry wit, Minnesota nice, the weather, some curling, and a woodsman sprinkled with maple sugar? You get Russell Russ. 

In April of 2006, three years after the start of Norfolk Now, Russ began writing his monthly articles about the weather.  His column in the February 2023 issue was his 200^th in a row. This is, by far, the greatest number of consecutive articles in Norfolk Now by a single author and the greatest number of articles in general by any Norfolk Now author. 

This is all relatively recent when compared to the start of Norfolk’s National Weather Service (NWS) Cooperative Weather Observer Station in January of 1932. There have been 92 years of daily 8 a.m. weather observations that have been recorded with the NWS, with Russ taking the torch 22 years ago. Russ’s father, Darrell, helped carry this torch for over 50 years before his son. Russ enjoys this work and particularly enjoys the many extemporaneous weather questions he gets around town.

Russ grew up in Norfolk and was part of the first class to complete their entire K-6 schooling at Botelle. Both his parents worked in town and are transplants from Minnesota. His dad managed Great Mountain Forest (GMF) and his mom taught at Botelle, and Center School prior to that. His family was very involved in town life at church and at the curling club. Russ went away to study forestry in Syracuse, N.Y., and came back to work stints at GMF, the state forestry department and a landscaping company, before settling down as a construction manager. In 2002, he headed back to his roots as a permanent forester for GMF. From his Norfolk office at GMF, in addition to forestry duties, he supervises the use and maintenance of the Yale Camp, Tobey Pond, and the Golf Drive Shelter. This time of year, he is busy making maple syrup.

Russ has been a Norfolk curler since he was knee high to a curling stone. Much of his free time is spent both curling and volunteering at the club. He was on the club board when the old club burned and found himself in a leadership role with the rebuilding of the club. With a sideways twinkle in his eyes, Russ says, “The many years managing construction projects really paid off when I volunteered to supervise the rebuilding of the curling club.” He still volunteers as de facto supervisor of building and grounds for the club.

Russ always finds a way to make our weather data into an interesting story in Norfolk Now. This is not easy considering the huge amount of data he fits into his dense narrative. If you take the time to slowly read and reread his monthly column, you see that there is a lot in there. Norfolk Now thanks Russell Russ, for his amazingly consistent string of enlightening weather stories, and for all you have done for Norfolk behind the scenes.