By LISA G. CURRIE

By LISA G. CURRIE

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

The name or face of Dennis Wingfield is familiar to most everyone in Rappahannock County.

You could have seen him walking past your Sperryville home in early morning hours or jogging down the Fodderstack course; his mission, to raise money for school projects.

You might have seen him behind the desk at Rappahannock County High School — teaching geography, government, college psychology or history — telling jokes or predicting the next snow storm.

You might have recognized his name from a newspaper article or from Channel 4 News.

Dennis Wingfield is quite a celebrity.

“People are always asking me, ‘are you the guy that does the weather,’ ” Mr. Wingfield said, sitting in his Sperryville kitchen after a long day of teaching at the high school. “Once when my wife went to write a check, the clerk asked her, is this the man that does the weather,’ referring to the two names at the top of the check.”

Yes, Dennis Wingfield is the man who records the weather.

“All I do is keep the records,” Wingfield said of his 30-year hobby. Keeping the records means recording high and low temperatures, rainfall amounts, wind velocities, humidity count and wind chill factor — and in the last column of his books, keeping tid-bits about the day, the very usual or the most unusual.

“I have gadgets everywhere,” he said, with a smile crossing his face. He points to one thermometer, then another and then to a third. He has a anemometer, an instrument which measures wind speeds, cones attached to the roof and metered on a gauge attached to the wall besideThe sink. A simple rain gauge stands head-tall in the center of his yard, while the windvane points its nose to the east.

“I love weather,” Wingfield said of his hobby, “I love to be outside where the weather is.”

See WINGFIELD, p. 16