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Robert Leffler's yard looks seemingly ordinary at first glance, until you see the two measuring stakes popping out of the snow.

As a National Weather Service Cooperative Observer, Leffler, 59, studies and records daily weather data. With his Damascus home serving as one of 10,000 observation stations in the United States and one of only three in Montgomery County, he is one of more than 11,000 official volunteer observers nationwide.

The National Weather Service was unable to give us the other two county stations by press time Tuesday.

Since beginning his role as an observer 17 years ago, Leffler's said he has never witnessed anything like this month's back-to-back blizzards.

"This winter's total snowfall accumulation (95 inches) totally crushed the ones before it," Leffler said. "We have an unprecedented shot at 100 inches. I mean, that's just unbelievable."

Founded in 1890, the National Weather Service Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) strives "to provide observational meteorological data ... required to define the climate of the United States and to help measure long-term climate changes," according to its Web site, www.nws.noaa.gov/om/coop/.

COOP also provides weather reports in addition to those made at airports.

"Most of the media does not know anything about these [COOP] stations, so they always use the airports [for data]," Leffler said. "It would be good for folks to know that there are these other 10,000 stations out there, situated where they live."

Cooperative observers are volunteers who donate their time and services.

A retired climatologist for the National Weather Service, the Peruvian-born Leffler moved to the United States with his American mother when he was 6 years old. He said he knew from a young age what his future career would be.

"I had a great curiosity about the weather, it was something I was drawn to naturally," Leffler said. "I remember looking up at the clouds. I loved snow."

He lived across Montgomery County in Rockville, Bethesda and Damascus before attending the University of Maryland, College Park. He graduated from college with a Bachelor of Science degree in physical geography and climatology in 1973.

Leffler's professional career has spanned nearly 40 years, with notable positions at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including project manager for the U.S. socioeconomic climate impact assessment program. His scientific papers have appeared in the American Meteorological Society and Journal of Applied Meteorology, to name a few.

In 2003, Leffler was honored by then-Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) with a Maryland Governor's Award for his scientific work.

As an observer, Leffler's day starts early. He goes outside at 7 a.m. to collect data, checking the temperature sensor in his backyard for the current temperature as well as the high and low from the past 24 hours. From there, he determines the liquid equivalent of snow gathered in a rain gauge by melting it inside his home. After reading two snow-depth stakes to measure old and new snowfall, he sends his findings to the National Weather Service's Washington/Baltimore forecast office in Sterling, Va.

Although he has studied climates all over the world, Montgomery County has always been the place for both home and work.

He describes the weather here as "pleasant but exciting."

"We have four distinct seasons and we get exciting weather without high risk of things like tornados," Leffler said. "When you get into the tropics, it gets horribly boring."

Judging by this season alone, Leffler has his work cut out for him. At 900 feet above sea level, Damascus is the highest community in Montgomery County, giving it the most snowfall of any other location in the area this season, with a total of 79 inches.

In a technical paper he has written analyzing this winter's snowfall in Montgomery County, Leffler credits this month's snowstorms to "a potent combination of tropical moisture and cold air together over the mid-Atlantic."

"This year, we had the combination of cold air and the subtropical moisture spinning out from the south," he added. "They collided right over us."

Despite the abundance of snowfall, Leffler said the temperature in Montgomery County has been "inconsistent."

"It hasn't been frigid this winter," he said. "The lowest temperature I've had is 9 [degrees Fahrenheit], which is unusually high for the extreme low. The lowest I've ever had here is -11 [degrees Fahrenheit]."

Since the release of former Vice President Al Gore's environmental documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," social awareness of global warming and the environment has been greater than ever, Leffler noted.

"Tropical and polar ice caps are collapsing at a catastrophic rate," he said. "Global warming is one of aspect of the polluting we're doing to this planet. We all have to be much better stewards of the Planet Earth."

Correction: The total accumulated snowfall was 95 inches.