Editing National Weather Service (section)

===1870–1899===
Early attempts to record weather information can be traced back to [[Joseph Henry]] of the [[Smithsonian Institution]], who, after a tornado in Jefferson, Illinois (modern-day [[Des Plaines, Illinois]]) in 1855, wrote to the ''Daily Democratic Press'' in Chicago for more information about the storm. Organized large-scale weather recording by the Smithsonian led to the creation of the U.S. Signal Service, the earliest predecessor of the modern-day National Weather Service.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/5b048ba7ede74e61bf265e91001f4e1a?fbclid=IwAR1P9o1DUlvFg53b_T2gb45CLB8yzKvWMei5IlcrOyW0vzIseg6qmTIkBAY |title=Des Plaines Tornado of May 22, 1855 |date=20 October 2022 |access-date=7 April 2025 |publisher=[[National Weather Service Chicago, Illinois]] and Des Plaines History Center }}</ref> In 1869, [[Cleveland Abbe]], then director of the [[Cincinnati Observatory]], began developing and issuing public weather forecasts (which he called "probabilities") using daily weather observations collected simultaneously and sent via telegraph by a network of observers. This effort was undertaken in cooperation with the [[Cincinnati]] Chamber of Commerce and [[Western Union]], which he convinced to back the collection of such information. Meanwhile, [[Increase A. Lapham]] of Wisconsin lobbied [[United States Congress|Congress]] to create a storm warning service, having witnessed the destructive power of storms in the [[Great Lakes]] region.<ref>Moore, Willis L. [https://archive.org/stream/nationalgeograph81897nati#page/66/mode/2up Storms and Weather Forecasts]. ''The National Geographic Magazine'', v. 8, n. 3, March 1897, p. 67.</ref> Representative [[Halbert E. Paine]] introduced a bill authorizing the secretary of war to establish such a service. On February 9, 1870, the first official weather service of the United States was established through a [[joint resolution]] of Congress signed by President [[Ulysses S. Grant]]<ref name="nwshistory1">{{cite web|title=NWS History|url=https://www.weather.gov/timeline/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240528162801/https://www.weather.gov/timeline|archive-date=May 28, 2024|access-date=June 27, 2024|publisher=National Weather Service}}</ref> with a mission to "provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent and at other points in the States and Territories... and for giving notice on the northern [[Great Lakes|(Great) Lakes]] and on the seacoast by magnetic [[telegraph]] and marine signals, of the approach and force of storms." The agency was placed under the [[United States Secretary of War|secretary of war]] as Congress felt "military discipline would probably secure the greatest promptness, regularity, and accuracy in the required observations."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Foster |first1=Alyson |title=In the Nineteenth Century, Scientists Set Out to Solve the "Problem of American Storms" |journal=Humanities |date=Fall 2023 |volume=44 |issue=4 |url=https://www.neh.gov/article/storm-patrol |access-date=14 December 2023 |publisher=National Endowment for the Humanities}}</ref> Within the [[United States Department of War|Department of War]], it was assigned to the [[U.S. Army Signal Corps|U.S. Army Signal Service]] under the [[Chief Signal Officer of the United States Army|chief signal officer]], Brigadier General [[Albert J. Myer]]. Myer gave the National Weather Service its first name: The Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce.<ref name="ScanningSkies">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/scanningskieshis0000brad/page/34|title=Scanning the Skies: A History of Tornado Forecasting|author=Bradford|first=Marlene|publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]]|year=2001|isbn=978-0-8061-3302-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/scanningskieshis0000brad/page/34 34]|chapter=Tornado Forecasting to 1940|lccn=00059979}}</ref>

In November 1870, Myer hired Lapham as the first civilian assistant to the new service, but Lapham left less than two years later. Abbe joined as the second civilian assistant to Myer in January 1871 and began developing a system for national forecasts, based on his work in Cincinnati, which he began issuing the following month.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Potter |first=Sean |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/1122799240 |title=Too Near for Dreams: The Story of Cleveland Abbe, America's First Weather Forecaster |date=2020 |publisher=American Meteorological Society |isbn=978-1-944970-56-7 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |oclc=on1122799240}}</ref> Throughout his career with the weather service, which lasted 45 years, Abbe urged continued research in [[meteorology]] to provide a scientific basis for forecasting.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=AMS ad hoc Committee—Abbe Report |url=https://www.ametsoc.org/AbbeReport |journal=Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society |volume=103 |issue=4 |pages=306–309}}</ref> While a debate went on between the Signal Service and Congress over whether the forecasting of weather conditions should be handled by civilian agencies or the Signal Service's existing forecast office, a Congressional committee was formed to oversee the matter, recommending that the office's operations be transferred to the Department of War following a two-year investigation.<ref name="stormwarning1">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/stormwarningstor00math/page/46|title=Storm Warning: The Story of a Killer Tornado|author=Mathis|first=Nancy|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster|Touchstone]]|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7432-8053-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/stormwarningstor00math/page/46 46–50]|chapter=A Tornado Forecast|lccn=2006051237}}</ref>

The agency first became a civilian enterprise in 1891, when it became part of the [[United States Department of Agriculture|Department of Agriculture]] and its name officially became the U.S. Weather Bureau. Under the oversight of that branch, the Bureau began issuing flood warnings and fire weather forecasts, and issued the first daily national surface weather maps; it also established a network to distribute warnings for [[tropical cyclone]]s as well as a data exchange service that relayed European weather analysis to the Bureau and vice versa.<ref name="stormwarning2">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/stormwarningstor00math/page/51|title=Storm Warning: The Story of a Killer Tornado|author=Mathis|first=Nancy|publisher=Touchstone|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7432-8053-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/stormwarningstor00math/page/51 51]|chapter=A Tornado Forecast|lccn=2006051237}}</ref>