Feb. 9, 1870: Feds Get on Top of the Weather

1870: President Ulysses S. Grant signs a bill creating what we now call the National Weather Service. Forecasting models were simple but generally effective.

It had been obvious for centuries that weather in North America generally moves from west to east, or southwest to northeast. But other than looking upwind, that knowledge was little help in predicting the weather until you could move weather reports downwind faster than the weather itself was moving.

The telegraph finally made that possible. The Smithsonian Institution in 1849 began supplying weather instruments to telegraph companies. Volunteer observers submitted observations to the Smithsonian, which tracked the movement of storms across the country. Several states soon established their own weather services to gather data.

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Tom Warner documents the powerful beauty of lightning with an array of optical and electromagnetic sensors. He often uses a Vision Research ‘Phantom’ high-speed camera.

Warner is a Ph.D student at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, in Rapid City. He studies atmospheric sciences with a specialty in lightning research. “Lightning is one of nature’s most spectacular phenomena,” says Warner. “I want to understand how lightning behaves.”

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Spotters and volunteers should check the following information regularly during possible severe weather for updated information.

• Emergency Manager Briefing Information
• Fort Worth NWS
• Storm Prediction Center
  • Overview
  • Convective Outlooks
  • Current Convective Watches
  • Current Mesoscale Discussions
  • Severe Weather Event Summaries
  • Mesoscale Analysis
  • Fire Weather Forecasts
  • National Weather Hazards

Bobette has published some photos from Field Day at the Fort Worth NWS office.