The National Weather Service has its beginnings in the early
history of the United States. Weather has always been important
to the citizenry of this country, and this was especially true
during the 17th and 18th centuries. |The beginning of the
National Weather Service we know today started on February 9th,
1870, when President Ulysses S. Grant signed a joint resolution
of Congress authorizing the Secretary of War to establish a
national weather service. This resolution required the Secretary
of War "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 and on the seacoast by magnetic
telegraph and marine signals, of the approach and force of
storms" After much thought and consideration, it was decided
that this agency would be placed under the Secretary of War
because military discipline would probably secure the greatest
promptness, regularity, and ac