Thirty-four years, seven months and 13 days of government service — that’s how long Augustana alumna Julia Berg ‘88 worked at the National Weather Service (NWS) in South Dakota and Nebraska. A long career, which Berg said she owed in part to Augustana.
Berg, originally of Spirit Lake, Iowa, was first introduced to Augustana by her father — a farmer who once passed on the opportunity to attend the college.
“It (Augustana) was small. I came from a small town,” said Berg, who resides in Glenvil, Nebraska. “I’m an extreme introvert and knowing this now, I can look back on it and say, ‘It was small enough that I didn’t feel intimidated, or at least, quite as intimidated.’”
Berg said because she was an introvert and also had a part-time job, she wasn’t involved in many activities at Augustana — she was happy being a “wallflower” and liked being at home. In fact, Berg finally declared a major the second semester of her senior year — interdisciplinary studies in mathematics and geography — because meteorology did not exist at Augustana in the traditional sense.
“As I was growing up, as a farmer’s daughter, when the weather forecast would come on, you were quiet,” said Berg. “And, my mom’s dad, just because he enjoyed the weather, had taken the high (temperature), the low and the amount of precipitation and snowfall for like 50 years. So, between the two of them, I kind of got interested in weather.”
In high school, Berg recalled telling them that she wanted to do what she thought was impossible. She wanted to be a forecaster for the NWS.
“Impossible dreams are not impossible if you work hard for them,” Berg said.
But, she first had to get her foot in the door. Berg’s academic advisor at Augustana had a connection at the NWS in Sioux Falls, who offered her a part-time job as a student. After she graduated, the NWS made her a full-time employee, even during a hiring freeze. A while later, the NWS was going to eliminate her position, but offered her another opportunity if she was able to get the equivalent of a degree in meteorology.
“In 11 weeks, I took 12 credits in meteorology from San Jose State University — that was my summer. They paid for my room, board, books, tuition and wages. I was one of 18 people chosen from across the whole United States. I was the only female, and I was the youngest by nine years. It was kind of like having 17 older brothers,” said Berg. “It was quite an accomplishment. It was not an easy thing to do.”
Berg worked in the NWS Sioux Falls office for 11 years before moving to the Aberdeen, South Dakota, office for another five years. In 2003, Berg moved to Nebraska to serve as a forecaster for the NWS in Hastings up until she retired in February 2022. Along with her long tenure came a plethora of weather-related anecdotes.
“I canceled Christmas in 2009,” recalled Berg. “We had a winter storm coming through between the 23rd and the 25th of December. We were just starting to do what we called Impact-Based Warnings. We were looking at potentially 12 inches of snow; we were looking at winds; we were looking at traveling. How much more impact do you want? So, it was enough to get people to pay attention to what was going on and travel a little earlier before the holidays.”
And, don’t think she hasn’t heard any and all of the criticism that comes with the title; the criticism that often comes with trying to predict mother nature.
“I would just tell them, ‘Come sit in my seat; do what I do.’ I’m looking at five screens. I’ve got multiple forecast models that are telling me different things. I can’t tell you how many times in a day I would be looking at two forecast models and one of them would have a ridge, which would mean nice weather, and another had a low, which would mean bad weather,” said Berg. “So, which one is it going to be?’”
Regardless of the criticism and long hours, Berg kept at it for more than three decades.
In retirement, Berg lives on an acreage south of Hastings with several horses and her corgi, Dakota, and is enriched with many hobbies, including knitting, crocheting and photography. Her closest family members, including her brother, father and mother have since passed away, which led her to think about what to do with her estate — her legacy. That brought her back to Augustana.
“Every semester, I would go in and talk to the business office. I would say, ‘I still want to go to Augustana, but I don’t have the money.’” And, they would find money for me to go to college,” recalled Berg. “I knew how much my dad had taken out for college loans, and I knew the approximate cost of my college education and I realized that Augustana had basically written off a third of my college education. And, the reason they were able to do that was because of donors.”
Berg said she wouldn’t be where she is today if it hadn’t been for those donors. So now, she has committed to pay it forward with an estate gift that will establish the Julia C. Berg Endowed Sciences Scholarship at Augustana. Berg’s hope is to give back to those just like her — to wallflowers; to those in need; to those who were once little girls driven to break a glass ceiling or two in the world of science. One day, Berg hopes their impossible will be possible, too.