Weather Forecasting - Part One

Our weather forecasts originate from the National Weather Service. How you get your weather forecast varies a lot. There are numerous weather phone apps. All television and radio stations provide weather forecasts, and there are the all-weather sites on the Internet. The data used is from the National Weather Service. What the weather service produces is in the public domain — it belongs to all of us. Weather Service data, as well as data from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other governmental sources are utilized in creating a forecast.

On Feb. 9, 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a new law. A new national weather observation service had been born within the U.S. Army Signal Service’s Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce. Historically, the Army Signal Corps provided weather observations across our growing nation. The Signal Corps made weather observations in the U.S. up to 1891.

The Smithsonian Institution made weather instruments available to telegraph companies in 1849. At one point, there were 500 stations making regular observations. These observations were interrupted by the Civil War. There were individuals who made weather observations in our nation’s early history. The American Colonial times saw several mentions of weather observations. The first regular weather observations in North America happened in 1644 in the area of Wilmington, Delaware, then known as New Sweden, by Swedish born Reverend John Campanius.

The Army Signal Corps’ first office in our region was in downtown Spokane, where its first weather observation occurred in 1881. In the National Archives are annual reports submitted by the Army Signal Corps. I read through a portion of the 1881 report, a massive 1,413 pages! Here’s a little bit from that report: “The total number of stations of observations in operation June 30, 1881, within the territory of the United States and maintained for Signal Service, was two hundred and ninety-six, including those upon the telegraph lines in charge of this office, and the special river and sunset stations, from which reports are regularly received.”

In 1891 the Army Signal Corps gave way to the United States Weather Bureau in the Department of Agriculture. In Spokane, the Weather Bureau was located at various locations, including Felts and Geiger Air Fields. In 1970, the Weather Bureau became the National Weather Service. The National Weather Service’s current office was established in 1995, and the Doppler Weather Radar installation was completed in 1996. This office is located just west of Airway Heights.

Today, a dedicated group of professionals are observing and providing weather forecasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, year-round. It’s a public service. Important to the endeavor are many citizen volunteers across the nation who provide on-the-ground weather observations to the weather service. You and I benefit, as well as many organizations like emergency management offices, law enforcement, land managers and many others. Private weather companies use this free, public domain information as well. Next month, will be part 2 of this short series. I’ll share an interview I had with an experienced weather forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Spokane.

Now, a look at weather data for May 2022. It’s fair to say May was cool. In fact, we tied May 1955 for the all-time minimum mean temperature of 53.0˚F. That measurement is from the local official Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) weather station at the BOR. A reminder, the following data are from my home weather station: The high temperature for May was 77.0˚F, the low was 31.8 and the mean, at my weather station, was 53.8. The all-time high for our region was 100 in 1986 and the all-time low was 27 in 1954. I measured 0.93 inches of precipitation. Precipitation was scattered throughout the month. The all-time maximum precipitation was 5.52 inches in 1948, and the all-time minimum was 0.04 inches in 1938. The mean precipitation for May was 1.14 inches.