Jim DeCarufel works at the National Weather Service's forecast office in Sterling, Va. He has been taking e-mails from readers answering last week's appeal in this space for volunteers to become NWS weather observers for the region. "You can turn it off now, if you don't mind," he writes. "We got 18 people to volunteer for the program. I even got a lady in Charlottesville. ... So you obviously have considerable coverage. Thank everyone for their interest, but we do not need any more people."