One Man Has Spent More Than 40 Years Living Alone and Recording Snow Fall Data in Colorado

A man named billy barr has spent more than 40 years living alone and recording snow fall data in Gothic, Colorado. In a short film featured in National Geographic‘s Short Film Showcase, barr discusses his life and the trends he’s witnessed in the declining snowpack.

Welcome to Gothic, Colorado—one of the coldest places in the United States. This ghost town has been abandoned since the 1920s, but there is at least one person who still calls it home. For more than 40 years, current resident billy barr has lived in a small cabin, recording data about the snowpack to pass the time. In this short film, Morgan Heim of Day’s Edge Productions profiles the legendary local who inadvertently provided scientists with a treasure trove of climate change data.