The National Weather Service has its beginnings in the early history
of the United States. Weather has always been important to
the citizenry of this country, and this was especially true
during the 17th and 18th centuries.
|The beginning of the National Weather Service
we know today started on February 9th, 1870, when
President Ulysses S. Grant signed a joint resolution of Congress
authorizing the Secretary of War to establish a national weather
service. This resolution required the Secretary of War
"to provide for taking meteorological observations
at the military stations in the interior of the continent
and at other points in the States and Territories...and
for giving notice on the northern (Great) Lakes and on
the seacoast by magnetic telegraph and marine signals,
of the approach and force of storms"
After much thought and consideration, it was decided that
this agency would be placed under the Secretary of War because
military discipline would probably secure the greatest promptness,
regularity, and accuracy in the required observations. Within
the Department of War, it was assigned to the Signal Service
Corps under Brigadier General Albert J. Myer. General Meyer
gave the National Weather Service its first name: The
Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce.
Ulysses S. Grant
Later that year, the first systematized, synchronous weather observations
ever taken in the U.S. were made by "observing-sergeants" of
the Army Signal Service at 22 stations and telegraphed to Washington.
An agency was born which would affect the daily lives of most of
the citizens of the United States through its forecasts and warnings.
This history of the National Weather
Service is broken up into several sections, including those days
before the resolution was passed in 1870. Follow the links below
to explore the early pioneers of weather forecasting in this country.