Crossroads in Weather History: The Intersection of Public and Private Interests at the Formation of the What is Now the National Weather Service ...150-plus Years Ago!

From the 1960s through the 1990s, the growth of meteorological-based private sector companies increased markedly. Coinciding with the explosion of media companies and the internet, and led by pioneers like Murray and Trettle and then AccuWeather and the Weather Channel, the expansion of America’s weather enterprise brought with it new tensions between the public and private sectors, which ultimately resulted in the National Academy of Science study entitled: Fair Weather: Effective Partnership in Weather and Climate Services (2003, National Academies Press). This landmark document helped define the symbiotic roles within the enterprise and led to a revamping of NOAA’s Policy on "Partnerships in the Provision of Environmental Services" in 2006 and recommended that both sectors avoid defining lines between these two components of the weather enterprise. Rather, they should accept that there are grey areas that should be worked out, on neutral ground if necessary, to facilitate the growth of both services during a time when weather and climate information was being used for important decisions ranging from public safety to a growing segment of businesses, resource management, and many other applications. By focusing on communication between all affected partners, today’s weather, water, and climate enterprise has become an evolving and productive partnership among many government agencies at the federal, state, and even local levels along with an enlarging private sector ... all working through the entire value chain from observations to forecast and warnings to serve societal needs.

Judged by these recent efforts, it would seem the push/pull dynamic between the public and private sectors was something new in the post-World War II era, developing only within the past 70 years or so. But through the NWS Heritage Projects initiated for the celebration of the 150th birthday of the NWS, evidence has been uncovered that shows this is not the case; that the public-private dynamic, in fact, commenced prior the formation of the Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce under the U.S. Army Signal Service (the predecessor to the Weather Bureau, now the NWS) 150 years ago. Thus, the forces shaping what would become the National Weather Service were in play as various important leaders discussed the need to serve both public and commercial interests, how best to secure funding to realize a forecast ability being developed in both America and Europe, and that real-time collection of data could be used to make important forecasts that could save lives and protect property. These discussions have reoccurred throughout the history of the NWS and have provided the foundation for what is today the most robust public-private weather enterprise in the World.