Galveston Office of the National Weather Service
Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First weather service office in Texas, and one of first in the United States; established April 19, 1871, slightly over a year after Congress passed an act in Feb. 1870 creating the Public Weather Service of the United States under the Army Signal Corps. For a century the Galveston service has issued Gulf storm forecasts. It correctly posted warnings prior to Texas' greatest natural disaster -- the 1900 hurricane that left more than 6,000 dead -- but had its own office demolished (although records were saved). Its men shared the common sorrows of the city in losses of family members and property. In Sept. 1961 the first live and direct televised picture of a hurricane -- the famous and devastating Carla -- was broadcast from the Galveston station. This set a pattern for other radar-equipped coastal weather stations throughout the United States. Galveston is the only weather station directly on the Gulf Coast west of Florida. Although many meteorological stations have moved with the coming of the aviation age, this oldest Texas station has compiled charts for 100 years within a 5-block area. Incise on base: Galveston County Historical Survey Committee
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established on April 19, 1871, barely a year after Congress created a national weather service under the Army Signal Corps, the Galveston office was the first of its kind in Texas and among the first in the nation. For a century it charted Gulf storms from within a five-block stretch of the coast, and though its warnings ahead of the catastrophic 1900 hurricane could not prevent the loss of more than 6,000 lives, its forecasters shared in the city's grief even as their own building fell. In 1961 the station broadcast the first live televised radar image of a hurricane, Carla, setting a model for coastal weather offices across the country.
Why it matters
This office links the birth of American weather forecasting to two defining Gulf disasters, showing how a single coastal station helped turn storm science into the public warning system millions now depend on.
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Related events
- · 1900 Galveston hurricane
- · Hurricane Carla (1961)
Themes & tags
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