The National Weather Service (now the U.S. Weather Bureau) was established
on February 9, 1870 through a joint resolution of Congress signed by President
Ulysses S. Grant with a mission of providing meteorological observations at
military stations in the interior of the continent and other points in the States
and Territories”. The new agency was placed under the Secretary of War and
was then assigned to the U.S. Signal Corps under General Albert J. Myer.

President Grant

General Myer

 

Left: Exterior view of the Headquarters Building of the U. S. Meteorological Service of the United States Signal Service. Right: A meteorologist reading
a barometer (1880).