Weather beacon

A weather beacon is a beacon that indicates the local weather forecast in a code of colored or flashing lights. Often, a short poem or jingle accompanies the code to make it easier to remember.[1][2]

Weather beacon barometer atop the Westpac Place building in Sydney

The beacon is usually on the roof of a tall building in a central business district, but some are attached to towers. The beacons are most commonly owned by financial services companies and television stations and are part of advertising and public relations programs. They provide a very basic forecast for the general public and not as an aid to navigation.

In addition to displaying weather forecasts, some weather beacons have been used to signal victory or defeat for a professional sports home team.

History

Precursors

In 1898 on the orders of U.S. President William McKinley, coastal warning display towers were installed along the coast of the United States. In 1936, the Weather Girl sculptures were installed in City Hall Square in Copenhagen. In 1938, Douglas Leigh, designed a Coca-Cola billboard with a weather forecast display at Columbus Circle in New York City.[3]

Weather beacons

The first attempt to create a weather beacon as a form of advertising was from Douglas Leigh, who, in 1941, arranged a lighting scheme for the Empire State Building to display a weather forecast code with a decoder to be packaged with Coca-Cola bottles. The plan was never implemented because of the attack on Pearl Harbor later that year.[4] Leigh resurrected his idea in Minneapolis in October 1949 with the Northwestern National Bank Weatherball.[5]

In Australia, the Mutual Life and Citizens insurance company installed weather beacons atop its buildings in 1957 and 1958.[6]

Weather beacons were most popular during the 1950s and 1960s.

Similar devices

List of weather beacons

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Canada

China

Denmark

Finland

Germany

Japan

Russia

  • Boiler House Weather Beacon, Ufa[32]

Sweden

Turkey

United Kingdom

United States

Notes

  1. http://www.mnhs.org/exhibits/weather/web_assets/Jingle.mov
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=344vwknMlFA
  3. Gray, Christopher (24 October 1998). "Streetscapes / Douglas Leigh, Sign Maker; the Man Behind Times Square's Smoke Rings". The New York Times.
  4. Manhattan Users Guide
  5. "Remembering a beloved icon", Northwestern Financial Review
  6. Federation and Meteorology, Memories of the Bureau, 1946 to 1962, page 1032
  7. "Harbinger, 2007". adriangollner.ca. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  8. MLC Building, North Sydney
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  10. Hitachi Building, Brisbane
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  12. Weather beacon to be given the flick – Queensland – BrisbaneTimes
  13. McCarthy, John (19 November 2007). "Weather beacon to be turned off". The Courier-Mail.
  14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=casRsothePY
  15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTGwaUziEvQ
  16. MLC Building, Adelaide
  17. Lloyd, Tim (30 March 2007). "City beacon stands tall". The Advertiser.
  18. 303 Collins Street, Melbourne
  19. "Docklands tower light show reflects weather forecast". 20 July 2016.
  20. "Who's afraid of Red, Green and Blue" – an urban installation by LAb[au] on Brussels Dexia Tower
  21. "Illustrated Vancouver Circa 1953 – the Capilano Weather Beacon |". 15 October 2011.
  22. Coolopolis: Montreal 50s SKYTOWER woot-woot!!!!
  23. 505 Boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest, Montreal
  24. 2,640 Colored Bulbs Will Predict Weather, The Gazette, 13 April 1956, p. 23
  25. Montreal this morning, The Gazette, 14 Jan. 1976, p. 3
  26. Correction, The Gazette, 17 Jan. 1976, p. 4 (beacon to be demolished, not building)
  27. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KwIagbGuYv4/SsUU9M5RBBI/AAAAAAAAAAM/H3s4SQgtKCg/s320/Plains1.jpg
  28. "Tomorrow's Weather, Copenhagen, 2009 | Bigert & Bergström".
  29. STAWAG – Die Wettersäule. Archived 25 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
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  31. "Культура".
  32. "Tomorrow's Weather Stockholm Central Station, 2012 | Bigert & Bergström".
  33. Beyazit Tower
  34. icCoventry – Put that light out!
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  38. {http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2006/04/barometer-controls-led-colors-on-london-tower.html]
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  48. Weather Bell Archived 5 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
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  58. Tower shines after 50 years: 10/1/00
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  60. http://www.wzzm13.com/weather/weatherball.asp
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  63. Valley City Sign Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
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  65. New Header
  66. Guided by History: Weatherball Archived 16 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  67. MNHS.ORG | Exhibits | Weather Permitting
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  71. Calavano, Alan (2008). Rochester. ISBN 9780738551944.
  72. MHS Visual Resource Database Image
  73. http://www.kchistory.org/content/business-mens-assurance-co-building-0
  74. http://www.hoachorus.com/harmonotes/Dec05Harmonotes.pdf
  75. Pershing Building, Kansas City
  76. "Built St. Louis | Central Corridor | Downtown West | Locust Street". www.builtstlouis.net. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
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  78. Terra Cotta Lofts, St. Louis
  79. Weather Ball 2 sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  80. Weather Ball sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  81. US Bank Tower, Billings
  82. Helena Last Chance Gulch
  83. Dunlap, David W. (4 February 2008). "No More MONY in the Midtown Skyline". The New York Times.
  84. Gothamist: Find Another Weather Forecast Archived 11 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  85. Mutual of New York Building, New York City
  86. Burleigh County : General Information Archived 10 December 2005 at the Wayback Machine
  87. Bismarck-Mandan Blog – Weather Beacon: been there, done that, got the t-shirt Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  88. Save the Weather Beacon! You can help!
  89. Chiquita Center, Cincinnati
  90. Lisa Miller (producer) (1987). WKRC-TV Gets Weather Beacon (Television advertisement). Cincinnati, Ohio: WKRC-TV. ♪ If you wanna know / what the weather will be / just look up to the top / of the Chiquita Building. ♪
  91. Griffith, Terry L. (2000). Oklahoma City: 1930 to the Millennium. ISBN 9780738508801.
  92. Tulsa TV Weather
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  96. Standard Insurance Plaza, Portland
  97. "Sign in to OregonLive.com". The Oregonian.
  98. Downtown Portland from our window by Gallun : Weather Underground Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  99. officeflowers sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  100. Gulf Building, Pittsburgh
  101. http://www.cparchives.com/archive.cfm?type=You%20Had%20to%20Ask&action=getComplete&ref=2497%5B%5D
  102. http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/default.aspx?pageId=47
  103. New twist on an old landmark – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
  104. http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=126076
  105. http://www.co.berks.pa.us/commissioners/cwp/view.asp?A=11&Q=490871
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  107. US Bank Building, Sioux Falls
  108. 28 January 2007 – Provident: a Beacon in the Chattanooga Community – Memories – Chattanoogan.com Archived 22 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  109. Maclellan Building, Chattanooga
  110. https://web.archive.org/web/20081118134918/http://www.nashvillewebreview.com/automat/nashville/popular_buildings/LandC/landc_brochure/LandC2.html. Archived from the original on 18 November 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  111. http://www.cardcow.com/21559/life-and-casualty-tower-nashville-us-state-town-views-tennessee-nashville/
  112. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-mercantileclock_13met.ART.State.Edition1.454c55b.html
  113. http://www.snarkymalarkey.com/?p=415
  114. Mercantile clock to tick once again | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Steve Brown | Real Estate | Business Columnist | Dallas Morning News
  115. The Center for American History
  116. ImageShack – Hosting :: 6006032fa.jpg
  117. Travis Tower, Houston
  118. ImageShack – Hosting :: 6006085yc.jpg
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  120. SixFlagsHouston.com | Photos :: Historical Photos :: globe Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  121. Drury Plaza Hotel River Walk, San Antonio, Texas Archived 14 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  122. Drury Plaza Hotel- San Antonio Riverwalk, San Antonio
  123. KSL 5 Eyewitness Weather Tower at Trolley Square – Utah News from KSL-TV, Salt Lake City, Utah Archived 16 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  124. http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695216239,00.html
  125. ksl.com – Historic weather tower lights up skyline
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