It is a little-known fact that the Midway Airport temperature readings and other meteorological data are really gathered couple of miles south, in the backyard of a nondescript ranch home in Burbank.

Frank Wachowski, a retired climatologist for the National Weather Service, has lived at 85th and Mobile Avenue since 1957, and his property has been designated a “cooperative weather station” since 1980.

Equipment such as an an anemometer to judge wind speed is attached to his roof, and a host of other tools are located in the backyard, including snow and rain gauges, and a hygrometer to measure humidity.

“I’ve been fascinated by weather since I was 8 years old,” said Wachowski, 70, who grew up in Chicago and made his first weather station as a teenager.  

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