Gilbert Meza, of Phoenix, Arizona, age 12, for his questions
When were the first U.S. weather stations started?
l'i weather station collects and sends out weather news. A group of these stations form a network, or weather bureau. Today, the United States Weather Bureau is a government agency and its home is in the Department of Commerce. But it started out in a small haphazard. way more than 100 years ago. As it grew, it had at least eight faster homes and a countless number nf sponsors,
Weather news was vital to the early settlers and to the pioneers crossing the prairies and the mountains. Every wayside stop gathered what weather news it could and handed it on. All sorts of government agencies did this as a sideline apart from their regular duties. It was a neighborly thing to do. We do not know who started the first regular weather station.
The need far an organized weather bureau was felt early in the last century. The Government Land Office had agencies all over the country so they became the first foster home for a systematic weather bureau. This was in 1817, Each office kept daily records of rain and snow and the temperature was recorded three times each day. This information was exchanged with other land offices. In 1819, military posts across the land also took and. exchanged weather reports. In 18.1, the U.S. Patent Office organized a group of volunteer weather reporters. A system was beginning to grow.
In 1849, the Smithsonian Institution organized its own group of weather stations and eight years later began to flash weather news by _ telegraph. In 1861, the budding weather bureau came to a sudden stop. For the tragic war between the States was in progress.
Organized weather reports began again after the war. The telegraph company and a group of businessmen organized the weather bureau in
Cincinnati. Daily reports were issued, together with a statement of what the weather probably had in store for this or that area. This was the start of weather forecasting.
From its Cincinnati foster home, the young weather organization made such strides that it became obvious that only the U.S. Government could handle it. On February 9, 1870, a law was passed to make it a government agency. Its new foster home was the Army Signal Service. And so things remained for the next twenty years.
Meantime, the weather news service continued to grow and take on an organized form Around 1890, it was obvious that the child should become an organization in its own right. On July 1, 1891, it officially became the Weather Bureau with its home in the Department of Agriculture. On June 30, 1940, the well‑run, well‑organized Weather Bureau was given its new home in the Department of Commerce.