Barbara Mayes Boustead, NOAA

Abstract:

Laura Ingalls Wilder wasn’t an official weather observer. She simply paid attention. Her life and livelihood intertwined with the weather and climate around her, inseparable. Wilder Weather reveals the accuracy of the vivid, detailed weather descriptions in her fictional Little House books—stories of blizzards and prairie fires, tornadoes and grasshoppers, floods and droughts. Wilder’s trusted voice builds a bridge for the millions of Americans across generations who have enjoyed her books to connect the weather of the past to weather today and in the future, shining light on the changing climate around us and the ways to keep our families and communities safe.

Barbara Boustead is a meteorologist, climatologist, and author of the nonfiction book Wilder Weather: What Laura Ingalls Wilder Teaches Us About Weather, Climate, and Protecting What We Cherish. Her 24-year career with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration includes 22 years with the National Weather Service serving in various roles as an operational weather forecaster, climate program leader, and instructor. She now works in NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research as a Heat Services Program Manager for the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) program. She has published articles in the Washington Post, Weatherwise magazine, and the Fine Lines literary journal, and her essay "Pain's Imposter Syndrome" is included in the award-winning anthology Awakenings: Stories of Body & Consciousness. She has served as the president of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association (a 501(c)3 non-profit organization) and president of the Omaha-Offutt Chapter of the American Meteorological Society. Barb resides near Omaha, Nebraska, with her spouse and 11-year-old son. When she's not writing, working, giving personal forecasts to friends and family, or teaching climate to teachers and students, she is probably on the sidelines of her kid's baseball/soccer/flag football games, keeping up with book club reads, handicapping sports events, chasing storms, jogging a few miles, singing karaoke, or coping with her health. If she's really lucky, she's beside a lake in northern Michigan, where she grew up. Barb earned bachelor's degrees from Central Michigan University in meteorology, geography, and English, a master's degree in meteorology from Penn State University, and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources: Climate Assessment and Impacts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.