By Ronica Stromberg
No matter what the climate was like outside, the High Plains Regional Climate Center had a good climate inside with Shellie Hanneman monitoring its data. A data quality technician, Hanneman retired January 30, 2026, after almost 32 years’ service at the university.
“She was a valuable member of the team and provided important services for the region and beyond,” said Rezaul Mahmood, director of the center and Hanneman’s supervisor for the past eight years. “Every day, Shellie brought a friendly and positive presence, always with a smile. We certainly miss all of it.”
Hanneman monitored the quality of data coming in hourly and daily from the Automated Weather Data Network and seven state Mesonets. She retrieved climate data, entered data and helped prepare responses to requests for data. She reported any issues with data maps and looked for significant weather impacts to report in the center’s monthly newsletter. She also served as the center’s notary.
“I always enjoyed my job,” Hanneman said. “The people made up a majority of that. I enjoy the weather, how high or low temps got, how much rain did you get? Is the soil temperature warm enough to do this yet?”
The soil temperature data proved useful to her at home, too, letting her know when to plant her gardens. She said she anticipates continuing to look at the center maps for a while but misses the people she worked with most.
She started work at the university as a clerk typist in meteorology in Chase Hall in 1994. Most of her career came to involve work related to the environment. For a few years, she worked at the Nebraska State Historical Society, and after viewing tintypes of Native Americans, she developed a strong interest in their culture. Other aspects of the historical society’s work she mentioned as interesting were seeing how sites came to be included in the National Register of Historic Places and typing journal entries from a family traveling west past Chimney Rock in the 1800s.
A Lincoln native, Hanneman has stayed in the area and said she plans to take part in water exercise in retirement. Beyond that, the woman described by Mahmood as “easy to work with” listed only one thing on her to-do list.
“I will probably go with the flow,” she said.