September 15th 2024 marks the 150th Anniversary of the opening of the Dodge City Weather Office

September 15^th, 2024 is the 150^th anniversary of the Dodge City Weather Office.  Record keeping began on September 15^th, 1874 with the Army Signal Corps establishing an office in the old Dodge House that was located at Chesnut and Railroad Avenues in Dodge City. A thermometer, barometer and anemometer were placed on the roof of the Dodge House for daily records. There was some documentation of observations prior to this at Fort Dodge by the U.S. Army that started in June 1866.  However, only a few records are available from this time. Sergeant M.L. Landers was the first person in charge of the Dodge City Weather Office. There were three reports a day that were taken and then consolidated into one message and telegraphed. Sergeant J.J. Weinberg succeeded Sergeant Landers in October 1875 until September 1876.  In June of 1876 the office was relocated to the Lake Building at the corner of Walnut Street and Second Avenue.  In January 1883 the office moved to the Hoover Building in the Beeson Block on Front Street. From September 1^st, 1886 to November 22^nd, 1909 the office was in a different location in the Beeson Block before moving into the Weather Bureau Building at Central and Spruce.  After September 1^st, 1886, dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures, maximum and minimum temperature thermometer readings, precipitation readings from the tipping bucket rain gauge and wind direction and velocity were recorded regularly. On October 1^st, 1890, the weather service is first identified as a civilian agency when Congress, at the request of President Benjamin Harrison, passes an act transferring the meteorological responsibilities of the Signal Service to the newly-created U.S. Weather Bureau in the Department of Agriculture. During the summer and fall of 1899 Dodge City was also a kite flying station. The Weather Bureau Building was torn down in 1931 and the office was located to the First National Bank Building at 2^nd and Spruce on April 7^th, 1931 and then on May 21^st, 1932, moved to the second floor of the Federal Building where the post office is located. Ten years later, on July 1^st, 1942 the office moved to the Municipal Airport east of Dodge City. The first upper air observations began in January of 1946 and continue to this day. The Weather Bureau officially became the National Weather Service in 1970. On October 17^th, 1990 the National Weather Service moved into its own building just west of the airport. The automated observing weather system known as ASOS was commissioned on September 1^st, 1992. The WSR-88D radar was commissioned on April 1^st, 1994. The office became a full-fledged weather forecast office in 1995 with the addition of five more meteorologists.