History of the NOAA National Weather Service in Southeast Michigan
Part I:� Early History
of the Weather Services in Southeast Michigan
1. Early Weather Observations in Detroit
As one of the oldest cities in North America,
Detroit (and southeast Michigan
in general) has a rich history of weather observations and significant weather
events.� The earliest recorded weather
observations for the area go back to the late 18th century by the
ships HMS Welcome and HMS Hope, which the British wintered (1779-80) near the
old Fort Sinclair
on the St. Clair River.� After that, sporadic
observational records exist for Detroit
through the first half of the 1800�s.�
Most reliable, were those ordered by the Army Surgeon�s General
following the War of 1812.� �These observations were routinely taken by
Army Assistant Surgeons stationed at Fort
Shelby from 1820 to 1826 � after
which Fort Shelby
was demolished.� The Surgeons General
resumed taking observations at the Dearbornville
Arsenal in 1836, and these continued until 1848.� Another set of observations were taken
simultaneously at the Detroit Barracks at Russell and Gratiot from
1839-1851.� Records also started at the
completion of Fort Wayne in
1862.� These were of frequent and good
quality through the Civil War years, but then became less reliable and
fragmented until their discontinuance in 1892.
The first attempt at a national, real-time weather observing
network followed the invention of the telegraph in 1844.� In 1848, a network of 150 volunteers
nationwide was recruited at the behest of the Smithsonian Institution.� In March of 1849, the Detroit
observer, Dr. George Duffield, began transmitting his
observation from Woodward and Larned to Washington
D.C. ��In 1858, the Smithsonian observations moved
to the Marine Hospital
at Jefferson and Mt.
Elliot, and continued there until
the start of the Civil War in 1862.�� The
Army Corp of Engineers� Lake Survey
unit also began taking observations in late 1858 and continued until 1870.�
2. �1870 - The Start
of a National Weather Service
By the mid 1800�s, marine traffic on the Great
Lakes was reaching a peak � and represented a significant segment
of commercial transportation in the United
States.�
Unfortunately, the Great Lakes marine fleet was
extremely vulnerable to the intense storms that traverse the lakes in summer
and fall.� In the years 1868 and 1869
over 3,000 ship were damaged or sunk by storms on the Great
Lakes, and 530 lives were lost in these disasters.�
Following these tragedies, Professor Increase Lapham of Milwaukee,
a student of early meteorology and an avid weather observer, sought support for
a national storm warning service to cope with the weather.� Sending clippings of the maritime casualties
to Congressman and General Halpert Paine of Milwaukee,
Lapham asked if it were not ��the duty of the
government to see whether anything can be done to prevent, at least, some
portion of this sad loss in the future�?���
In response to Professor Lapham�s petition, Congressman
Paine, on February 2, 1870, introduced a Joint Congressional Resolution
requiring the Secretary of War �to provide for taking meteorological
observations at the military station 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.�� The
Resolution passed and was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on February 9, 1870.
Thus was ordered the beginning of today�s NOAA National
Weather Service.� In 1870, this duty was
initially assigned to the U.S. Army Signal Service, and its meteorological
division (formally known as the �Division of Telegrams and reports for the
Benefit of Commerce�) quickly became popularly-known as the �Weather Bureau�. �On November
1, 1870, at 735 am, observations from 24 locations, including Detroit,
were sent by telegraph to Washington
and other cities.�
In Detroit, the
Signal Service Sergeant Allen Buel was in charge of
the weather unit and its initial location was in Room 186 in the top floor of
the Michigan Exchange Hotel at the corner of Jefferson and Wayne.� This location is now occupied by the circular
ramp to the roof of Cobo
Center.� Six months later, on May 15, the Signal
Service was moved to more permanent residence on the Buhl Block at the corner
of Congress and Griswold.� Another ten
years later, in 1881, the �Weather Bureau� moved to Room 225 of the Board of
Trade Building at 154 Jefferson, where it remained until
1890.
All of the original weather records of the U.S. Signal
Service currently reside at the NOAA National Weather Service office in White
Lake MI.
�The records are startling in their penmanship
and hand-written clarity, and include documentation of two major weather events
for the regions.� The first was a written
account describing the first recorded tornado to hit Detroit
(June 18, 1874).� The second describes Detroit�s
the all-time 24 hour record snowfall (April 7, 1886).
3.� 1890 � The
Department of Agriculture
In 1890, the Congress and President Benjamin Harrison signed
into law a resolution to establish the �United States Weather Bureau� as an
agency of the Department of Agriculture.�
In Detroit, the new agency
occupied Rooms 1008-1010 of the Hammond
Building at 122 Griswold and all
employees of the old Signal Service were transferred to civilian service in the
Weather Bureau.�� The Weather Bureau�s
role in forecasting and disseminating weather information was increasing at
this time, and in 1895 Norman Conger became the first qualified meteorologist
to take charge of the station.� In 1896
the office moved from the Hammond Building
to rooms 1105-1107 of the Union Trust
Building at 102 Griswold, and then
was relocated in 1907 to rooms 1314-1319 of the Majestic
Building at 1101 Woodward.� Instruments exposed on the roof of the
Majestic were as high as 258 feet above street level
Even though the use of telegraph and telephone were
increasingly in use as methods of disseminating weather warnings and forecasts
in the early part of the century, from 1909-1919 one of the more popular ways
and visible ways for people to access the Weather Bureau forecasts was via a
kiosk.� The Detroit
kiosk was located in a central location on the front lawn of the old City Hall,
near the current location of Campus Martius at
Woodward and Michigan.�� The kiosk was 10 feet high and four feet
square and each of the four sides held a plate glass window. �One side held several self-recording weather
instruments, while the other sides contained weather maps and bulletins.
Several historical weather events occurred in southeast Michigan
during this time frame.� Of particular
note was the �White Hurricane� storm of November 1913.� The great storm was a freakish event that
produced heavy snows around the region, winds in excess of hurricane force over
Lakes Huron
and Erie, and sank several large
vessels on the Great Lakes over a several day period.
4.� 1928 - Aviation
Services Come to The Weather Bureau in Southeast
Michigan
Detroit�s first
airplane took off from the State Fairgrounds on July 14, 1910, and two airports were built in the area
during World War I � one at the current Selfridge
Army Air Field and Ford Field between Oakwood
Boulevard and the Rouge
River.� Following the War, Weather Bureau employees
increasing involved in providing weather advice for aviation activities at the
airports.� Pilot Balloon observations
were started at Ford Field on January
17, 1919, and the Air Commerce Act of 1926 gave the Weather Bureau
specific responsibilities in the field of aviation weather services.� The first scheduled passenger flight in the United
States occurred on November 2, 1927 from Ford
Airport to Cleveland.�� By 1928, a full-time Weather Bureau Airport
Station (WBAS) was established at Ford Field.�
The WBAS was moved to the new Wayne
County Airport
(current Detroit Metro DTW) in 1930, and to the Detroit
City Airport
in 1933 (DET).� In the early 1930s a new Federal
Building was built downtown and the
Weather Bureau moved from the Majestic to room 1013 of the new building.� On January
1, 1934, all weather observations were transferred to the Weather
Bureau Airport Station at City Airport
while administrative and forecast functions remained at the Federal
Building.� At the time, Detroit
City Airport
was the first airport in the United States
to be the official weather observation site for their city.� By the late 1930s, the forecast functions of
the Weather Bureau were gradually transferred to the City
Airport office until, by 1940, only
the administrative functions of the agency and the Meteorologist in Charge
remained at the Federal Building
location.�
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