The National Weather Service Miami, Florida is a local weather forecast office of the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

(NWS) that serves six counties in

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

– Broward, Collier, Glades, Hendry, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach – as well as the mainland portion of Monroe County. This office was originally established in 1879 as a Signal Corps station near the Jupiter Inlet Light, before becoming a Weather Bureau Office (WBO) in 1891. The WBO at

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

was moved southward to

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

in 1911, due to the city's rapidly growing population. In 1930, a separate Weather Bureau Airport Station (WBAS) was established at the Miami Municipal Airport. The WBAS was later moved to the

Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary international airport serving Miami and its Miami metropolitan area, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of Florida. It hosts over 1, ...

in 1942 and remained there until ceasing operations in 1975. Under the leadership of Grady Norton, the joint hurricane warning service, which was a predecessor to the

National Hurricane Center The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is the division of the United States' NOAA/National Weather Service responsible for tracking and predicting tropical weather systems between the IERS Reference Meridian, Prime Meridian and the 140th meridian ...

, was moved from the WBO Jacksonville to the WBO Miami in 1943. The Weather Bureau was renamed the National Weather Service in October 1970. Thus, WBO Miami became NWS Miami. As part of an organizational restructuring plan in the 1990s, an NWS office in

West Palm Beach West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...

was merged with NWS Miami. Since 1995, this office of the NWS has been located on the campus of

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Westchester, Florida, United States. Founded in 1965 by the Florida Legislature, the school opened to students in 1972. FIU is the third-largest univ ...

and adjacent to the National Hurricane Center.

History

After

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

signed a joint resolution of Congress in 1870 establishing a weather service within the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

, the

Signal Corps A signal corps is a military branch, responsible for military communications (''signals''). Many countries maintain a signal corps, which is typically subordinate to a country's army. Military communication usually consists of radio, telephone, ...

opened 22 observation stations. In July 1879, such a facility was founded at the Jupiter Inlet near the

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

. Farther south, other people in the Miami area kept weather records, including W. H. Hunt, a state senator who represented Brevard and Dade counties (they adjoined at the time), and Ephraim Sturtevant, the father of

Julia Tuttle Julia DeForest Tuttle (née Sturtevant; January 22, 1849 – September 14, 1898) was an American businesswoman who owned the property upon which Miami, Florida, was built. For this reason, she's called the "Mother of Miami." She's the only woman ...

, who was known as the "Mother of Miami". In 1890, President

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was the 23rd president of the United States, serving from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia—a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, and a ...

requested that Congress create the Weather Bureau and transfer it to the

Department of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

. Less than a year later, the signal station became the Weather Bureau Office (WBO) Jupiter. During the winter of 1894–1895, WBO Jupiter recorded two severe freezes, with low temperatures of on December 29 and February 9, respectively. As a result,

Henry Flagler Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 – May 20, 1913) was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil, which was first based in Ohio. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founder ...

decided to extend the

Florida East Coast Railway The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México. Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a p ...

southward to Miami from

. Due to Miami's rapidly growing population in the early 20th century, the WBO in Jupiter closed in May 1911 and moved to the city about a month later. Located at the Bank of Bay Biscayne Building in Miami, a steel tower was constructed on the roof of the building to record wind direction and velocity. In August 1914, the WBO Miami was moved to the Federal Building located at Northeast 1st Street and 1st Street. In October 1944, the Weather Bureau opened a part-time office at Palm Beach Air Force Base (modern-day Palm Beach International Airport) in West Palm Beach. The office became full-time in November 1945 and was known as NWS West Palm Beach.

Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew was a compact, but very powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. It was the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures dama ...

made landfall in southern Miami-Dade County on August 24, 1992. Overnight, strong winds blew the WSR-57 radar off the roof. The NWS offices in Melbourne,

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, and West Palm Beach all provided forecasting issuance and backup warnings. The new radar,

NEXRAD NEXRAD or Nexrad (Next-Generation Radar) is a network of 159 high-resolution S-band pulse-Doppler radar, Doppler weather radars operated by the National Weather Service (NWS), an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ...

, was installed in April 1993 near the Miami MetroZoo, ahead of schedule. NEXRAD was commissioned on April 20, 1995. The next month, NWS Miami and the NHC moved to the campus of

. As part of an organizational restructuring plan in the 1990s, NWS West Palm Beach merged with NWS Miami in 1993. In 1997, there was a proposal to merge NWS Key West into NWS Miami. However, by March 1998, after consideration from Congress and the NWS headquarters, it was decided that NWS Key West would remain a separate office.

Directors

The following are the directors of NWS Miami since its establishment in 1879. There was no director prior to 1888. ;United States Signal Service (1888–1891) ;Weather Bureau Office, Jupiter, Florida (1891–1911) ;Weather Bureau Office, Miami, Florida (1911–1970) ;National Weather Service, Miami, Florida (1970–present)

NOAA Weather Radio

The National Weather Service Miami, Florida forecast office provides programming for six

NOAA Weather Radio NOAA Weather Radio (NWR), also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, is an automated 24-hour network of Very high frequency, VHF Frequency modulation, FM weather radio stations in the United States which broadcast weather information direct ...

stations in South Florida.

References

External links

NWS Miami's website
{{List of National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Organizations based in Miami