Advanced Warnings Inc history

1849: Smithsonian Institution supplies weather instruments to telegraph companies and establishes extensive observation network.

As early as 1850, self-taught Wisconsin naturalist and scientist Increase A. Lapham urged the “establishment of an observatory where forecasts could be collected at the lake ports” to help save lives on the Great Lakes.

By 1860, 500 stations were furnishing daily telegraphic weather reports to the Washington Evening Star, and as the network grew, other existing systems were gradually absorbed, including several state weather services.

In 1867, Increase Lapham exchanged correspondence with J. D. Hooker, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, London, about successes Great Britain had achieved in their attempts to predict storms by means of telegraph.

1869: Telegraph service, instituted in Cincinnati, began collecting weather data and producing weather charts.

The development of a centralized weather forecast program by the U. S. Army Signal Corps in 1870 made apparent the need for improved documentation and increased understanding of destructive local storms.

Cleveland Abbe, the director of the Cincinnati Observatory, is appointed Assistant to the Chief Signal Officer of the Signal Service on January 3, 1871.

CloseMarshfield – April 18, 1880Marshfield – April 18, 1880×CloseOn April 18, 1880, Missouri was struck by numerous tornadoes statewide, killing a total of 151 people.

In order to keep consistent time among the reporting stations, he divides the nation into four standard time zones, which are adopted by the railroad companies in 1883 and later implemented nationally.

In late 1889, Senator William Bate of Tennessee introduces Senate Bill S. 1454 to transfer the Signal Service from the Army to the Department of Agriculture.

In fact after 1893 no storm caused more damage to New York City until Sandy last year.

1894: William Eddy, using five kites to loft a self-recording thermometer, makes first observations of temperatures aloft.

1895: Secretary of Agriculture J. Sterling Morton appoints Professor Willis Luther Moore chief of the Weather Bureau.

1898: President William McKinley orders the Weather Bureau to establish a hurricane warning network in the West Indies.

R.A. Fessenden, a Weather Bureau employee, first successfully experiments with voice transmission via wireless telegraphy (radio) in 1900.

1901: Official three-day forecasts begin for the North Atlantic.

Meanwhile, the Marconi Company begins broadcasting Weather Bureau forecasts by wireless telegraphy to Cunard Line steamers in 1902.

1904: The government begins using airplanes to conduct upper air atmospheric research.

1905: The SS New York transmits the first wireless weather report received on ship at sea.

1909: The Weather Bureau begins its program of free-rising balloon observations.

1910: Weather Bureau begins issuing generalized weekly forecasts for agricultural planning; its River and Flood Division begins assessment of water available each season for irrigating the West.

1911: The first transcontinental airplane flight, from New York City to Pasadena, Calif., by C.P. Rogers, in 87 hours and 4 minutes, air time, over a period of 18 days.

1912: As a result of the Titanic disaster, an international ice patrol is established, conducted by the Coast Guard; first fire weather forecast issued.

1913: Professor Charles F. Marvin serves as the new chief of the Weather Bureau, replacing Professor Moore.

1914: An aerological section is established within the Weather Bureau to meet growing needs of aviation; first daily radiotelegraphy broadcast of agricultural forecasts by the University of North Dakota.

1916: A Fire Weather Service is established, with all district forecast centers authorized to issue fire weather forecasts.

1917: Norwegian meteorologists begin experimenting with air mass analysis techniques which will revolutionize the practice of meteorology.

1918: The Weather Bureau begins issuing bulletins and forecasts for domestic military flights and for new air mail routes.

1919: Navy Aerological Service established on a permanent basis.

1920: Meteorologists form a professional organization, the American Meteorological Society, which is still active today.

1921: The University of Wisconsin makes a radiotelephone broadcast of weather forecasts, the first successful use of the new medium for weather advisories.

1926: The Air Commerce Act directs the Weather Bureau to provide for weather services to civilian aviation; fire weather service formally inaugurated when Congress provides funds for seven fire weather districts.

1927: The Weather Bureau establishes a West Coast prototype for an Airways Meteorological Service.

1928: The teletype replaces telegraph and telephone service as the primary method for communicating weather information.

1931: The Weather Bureau begins regular 5:00 a.m.

1933: A science advisory group apprizes President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the work of the volunteer Cooperative Observer Program is one of the most extraordinary services ever developed, netting the public more benefits per dollar expended than any other government service in the world.

1934: Doctor Willis L. Gregg is named chief of the Weather Bureau, replacing Professor Marvin.

As the Labor Day 1935 long holiday weekend began no one in the Weather Bureau or in the Florida Keys had any reason to worry about the weather.

1937: First official Weather Bureau radio meteorograph, or radiosonde sounding made at East Boston, Mass.

21, 1938 with winds up to 150 mph and a central pressure of 27.94 inches of mercury.

1939: The Weather Bureau initiates automatic telephone weather service in New York City; radio meteorgraphs, or radiosondes, replace all military and Weather Bureau aircraft observations.

Realizing that the Weather Bureau played an important role in the aviation (and therefore commerce) community, President Franklin D. Roosevelt transfers the Weather Bureau to the Department of Commerce in 1940, where it remains today.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, weather observations and forecasts are subject to censorship, to minimize their use by invading forces.

1942: A Central Analysis Center, forerunner of the National Meteorological Center, is created to prepare and distribute master analyses of upper atmosphere; Joint Chiefs of Staff establish a Joint Meteorological Committee to coordinate wartime civilian and military weather activities.

The former hurricane forecast offices at San Juan, New Orleans, Washington, and Boston issue advisories and warnings after coordination with NHC. (The Jacksonville hurricane office had been relocated to Miami in 1943.)

1944: The decision to invade Normandy on June 6 was based on weather forecasts, which indicated the correct combination of tides and winds.

1945: More than 900 women are employed by the Weather Bureau as observers and forecasters, as a result of filling positions of men during World War II.

In response to the 1946 Aleutian Islands tsunami that devastated Hilo, HI, the United States government establishes a tsunami warning center for the Hawaiian Islands.

The first of these radars, the WSR-1, is deployed at Washington (DC) National Airport in early 1947.

1948 witnessed the single event that most directly led to the establishment of a centralized severe weather forecast program in the United States.

As director of the Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit in the 1950's, he took the lead in applying computers to meteorological use.

1951: The Severe Weather Warning Center — forerunner of the National Severe Storms Center — begins operation at Tinker Air Force Base, in Oklahoma.

The WBAN severe weather operation became permanent on 21 May 1952 when the group was formally recognized as the Weather Bureau Severe Weather Unit (SWU). Forecast responsibility that had been limited to tornadoes was now expanded to include large hail, high winds, and extreme convective turbulence.

The unit was renamed the Severe Local Storm Warning Center (SELS) on 17 June 1953 --- shortly after death-dealing tornadoes struck Flint, MI, Waco, TX, and Worcester, MA. Devastating storms on 7-9 June alone claimed more than 200 lives.

Three of the original five permanent SWU forecasters left the group before its move to Kansas City in 1954.

They became operational in February and were renamed "Convective Outlooks" when regular transmission began on the "Service A" teletype network in April 1955.

1957-58: The International Geophysical year provides first concerted world wide sharing of meteorological research data.

On April 1, 1960, the first weather satellite is launched.

1961: President Kennedy, in his State of the Union address, invites all nations to join the United States in developing an International Weather Prediction Program.

He serves as head of the nation’s weather service for a quarter century — longer than anyone before or since — until his retirement in 1963.

The Palmer Observatory in Alaska, created following the March 1964 earthquake, is transferred to the National Weather Service and renamed the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.

In July 1965, the Department of Commerce creates the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA), with the Weather Bureau as one of the agencies within ESSA.

1966: Weather officials from 25 nations meet in London for the First International Clean Air Congress.

1967: Responsibility for issuing air pollution advisories is assigned to the Weather Bureau’s National Meteorological Center.

1969: Weather-related historic event: Neil Armstrong, Commander of spacecraft Apollo 11, becomes first man to set foot on the moon.

It became the National Weather Service in 1970.)

Remember when movies and news reports talked about “F3 tornadoes” or “F5 tornadoes”? That’s the Fujita Scale, devised by Doctor T. Theodore Fujita of the University of Chicago in 1971.

1973: The National Weather Service purchases its second generation radar, the WSR-74.

1975: The first "hurricane hunter" Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) is launched into orbit; these satellites with their early and close tracking of hurricanes, greatly reduce the loss of life from such storms.

But one of the more important developments of the period occurred with the establishment of the Techniques Development Unit (TDU) in April 1976.

After the crash of Southern Airways Flight 242 near Atlanta in 1977 due to hail damage and lost thrust on both engines during a severe storm, the NWS establishes Center Weather Service Units to help with forecasting for air traffic.

He remains in the position after the Weather Bureau is renamed the National Weather Service, and serves until 1979.

Frederick P. Ostby became the Director of NSSFC in May 1980, shortly after the transfer of Pearson to NWS Central Region Headquarters.

1981: Weather-related science event: World's first reusable space shuttle, Columbia, is launched, completing its mission three days later.

Ostby oversaw NSSFC's entry into the age of interactive computing with the arrival of the Centralized Storm Information System (CSIS) in February 1982.

The NWS provides special forecasts for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, CA.

1985: Harvard's Blue Hill Observatory celebrates 100 years of continuous monitoring of the atmosphere.

1986: The Voyager aircraft completes the first nonstop, non-refueled flight around the world in nine days with assistance of continuous weather support from retired, volunteer and current NWS employees.

He remains in this position until 1988, when he retires to become executive director of the American Meteorological Society.

1989: United States assists clean-up efforts following San Francisco Earthquake with mobile forecast unit.

1990: The National Meteorological Center procures and installs a supercomputer, the Cray Y-MP8, to run higher resolution and more sophisticated numerical weather production models.

1992: Twenty-two of the planned 115 modernized Weather Forecast Offices (WFO) were built or remodeled during the year, with 12 NWS radars installed.

As part of a decade-long effort to modernize the nation's weather services around the newly-deployed Doppler radar network, NSSFC was renamed the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in October 1995, with former TDU chief Joseph T. Schaefer selected to succeed Ostby as Director.

Shortly thereafter, the Mesoscale Discussion program was expanded to include short-term forecasts of hazardous winter weather and heavy rainfall, and a separate program was instituted to address the meteorological conditions favorable for wild fires in May 2000.

2001: President George W. Bush issues the first presidential proclamation for the National Hurricane Preparedness week.

The NWS participates in a public-private partnership to provide weather support for the 2002 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games near Salt Lake City, UT.

In 2006, the National Weather Service unveiled the Enhanced Fujita Tornado Scale based on four years of research.

In 2007, the EF-scale replaced the original F-scale in all tornado damage surveys in the United States.

2009: Drought conditions occurred during much of the year across parts of the Southwest, Great Plains, and southern Texas causing an estimated $5 billion in agricultural losses in numerous states.

GOES-15, launched on March 4, 2010, from Cape Canaveral, Fla., joining three other NOAA operational GOES spacecraft that help the agency's forecasters track life-threatening weather.

Following several weather disasters in 2011 that took hundreds of lives, NWS initiates the Weather Ready Nation campaign.

In 2013, it is renamed the National Tsunami Warning Center.

Its 8.5 mile track covers about 15 square miles of the city and causes more than $250 million worth of damage ($1.7 billion in 2020 dollars). It sparks additional research into severe weather and contributes to the development of the Fujita Tornado Damage Scale.