Weather beacon

Weather beacon barometer atop the Westpac Place building in Sydney

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]

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

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.[3] Leigh resurrected his idea in Minneapolis in October 1949 with the Northwestern National Bank Weatherball.[4]

In Australia, the Mutual Life and Citizens insurance company installed weather beacons atop its buildings in 1957 and 1958.[5]

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

Similar devices

List of weather beacons

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Canada

Denmark

Finland

Germany

Japan

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. Manhattan Users Guide
  4. "Remembering a beloved icon", Northwestern Financial Review
  5. 1 2 3 Federation and Meteorology, Memories of the Bureau, 1946 to 1962, page 1032
  6. "Harbinger, 2007". adriangollner.ca. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  7. MLC Building, North Sydney
  8. Photo of Westpac Place: View of the weather beacon displaying its red light panels
  9. Hitachi Building, Brisbane
  10. Hitachi Building Weather Beacon RIP sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  11. Weather beacon to be given the flick – Queensland – BrisbaneTimes
  12. McCarthy, John (19 November 2007). "Weather beacon to be turned off". The Courier-Mail.
  13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=casRsothePY
  14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTGwaUziEvQ
  15. MLC Building, Adelaide
  16. Lloyd, Tim (30 March 2007). "City beacon stands tall". The Advertiser.
  17. 303 Collins Street, Melbourne
  18. "Who's afraid of Red, Green and Blue" – an urban installation by LAb[au] on Brussels Dexia Tower
  19. Coolopolis: Montreal 50s SKYTOWER woot-woot!!!!
  20. 505 Boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest, Montreal
  21. 2,640 Colored Bulbs Will Predict Weather, The Gazette, 13 April 1956, p. 23
  22. Montreal this morning, The Gazette, 14 Jan. 1976, p. 3
  23. Correction, The Gazette, 17 Jan. 1976, p. 4 (beacon to be demolished, not building)
  24. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KwIagbGuYv4/SsUU9M5RBBI/AAAAAAAAAAM/H3s4SQgtKCg/s320/Plains1.jpg
  25. STAWAG – Die Wettersäule
  26. http://www.city.osaka.jp/english/osaka_walking/lv1.html
  27. Beyazit Tower
  28. icCoventry – Put that light out!
  29. Coventry Design Awards 2001 – Three Towers Lighting Project : Hillman House, Corporation Street
  30. Mattei Building, Fresno
  31. News10.net – News10 Weather Tower Key
  32. Nolte, Carl (8 December 2008). "Lights atop One Rincon Hill signal S.F. weather". San Francisco Chronicle. pp. B–1. Retrieved 13 December 2008.
  33. Dickinson, Joy Wallace (7 April 2002). "Short Play Brings Rainmaker's 1939 Tale Back to Life". Orlando Sentinel.
  34. Orlando Sentinel – History of the Church Street Station Area by
  35. Bell Savings Building, Chicago
  36. Weather Bell sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  37. Weather Bell
  38. Clocks of Chicago 1: Bell Federal Savings
  39. Memories Of Marina City
  40. Warmer Weather Ahead sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  41. Colder Weather in Sight sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  42. Channel 9 KCAU-TV Weather Ball
  43. "What Do The Weather Lights Mean?". WLWT.com. Hearst Television. 17 April 2009. Archived from the original on 10 March 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  44. 1952 The Falstaff Weather Ball is First Lit
  45. http://clarionherald.org/20010301/stall.htm
  46. Falstaff Brewery – New Orleans Louisiana sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  47. New Orleans, Louisiana Daily Photo
  48. Tower shines after 50 years: 10/1/00
  49. http://www.mlive.com/business/mid-michigan/index.ssf/2013/11/watch_as_two_women_with_strong.html
  50. http://www.wzzm13.com/weather/weatherball.asp
  51. Grand Rapids Business Journal – Weather Ball History
  52. weather ball sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  53. Valley City Sign
  54. The Technical History of WEBC Radio: Chapter Five
  55. New Header
  56. Guided by History: Weatherball Archived 16 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  57. MNHS.ORG | Exhibits | Weather Permitting
  58. History of the NWS in the Twin Cities – At the Airport
  59. A History of Minneapolis: Banking and Finance Archived 6 June 2002 at the Wayback Machine.
  60. "Remembering a beloved icon". Northwestern Financial Review. 2001. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010.
  61. MHS Visual Resource Database Image
  62. https://books.google.com/books?id=Z6k2sY7AeCwC&pg=PA121&dq=weatherball#PPA121,M1
  63. http://www.kchistory.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/Askren&CISOPTR=58&CISOBOX=1&REC=7
  64. http://www.hoachorus.com/harmonotes/Dec05Harmonotes.pdf
  65. Pershing Building, Kansas City
  66. http://www.terracottalofts.com/bldghistory.asp
  67. Blacktie-StLouis | PREMIERE EVENTS | The 8-foot, 1200-pound neon ball sits on top of a 50-foot rotating tower and can be seen over a 10-mile radius when lit
  68. Terra Cotta Lofts, St. Louis
  69. Weather Ball 2 sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  70. Weather Ball sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  71. US Bank Tower, Billings
  72. Helena_Last_Chance_Gulch
  73. Dunlap, David W. (4 February 2008). "No More MONY in the Midtown Skyline". The New York Times.
  74. Gothamist: Find Another Weather Forecast
  75. Mutual of New York Building, New York City
  76. http://townofmanteo.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={887829A3-F959-42C2-95C7-248BCDF8D423}&DE={82D8218D-C660-4DA1-89F4-E6303D384BA8}
  77. Burleigh County : General Information
  78. Bismarck-Mandan Blog – Weather Beacon: been there, done that, got the t-shirt
  79. Save the Weather Beacon! You can help!
  80. Chiquita Center, Cincinnati
  81. 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. ♪
  82. https://books.google.com/books?id=4dz2XwSzSKEC&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&dq=%22weather+beacon%22+%22oklahoma+city%22&source=web&ots=Wc-AsNw0-b&sig=6GVF-IjtOoYxsQG8muL2OKXZ7uU#PPA23,M1
  83. Tulsa TV Weather
  84. Tulsa Historical Society | Learn | Exhibits | Historic Sites
  85. 320 S. Boston 3 sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  86. http://www.pdxmagazine.com/Nov_issue_06.pdf
  87. Standard Insurance Plaza, Portland
  88. "Sign in to OregonLive.com". The Oregonian.
  89. Downtown Portland from our window by Gallun : Weather Underground
  90. officeflowers sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  91. http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/default.aspx?pageId=47
  92. New twist on an old landmark – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
  93. Gulf Building, Pittsburgh
  94. http://www.cparchives.com/archive.cfm?type=You%20Had%20to%20Ask&action=getComplete&ref=2497
  95. http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=126076
  96. http://www.co.berks.pa.us/commissioners/cwp/view.asp?A=11&Q=490871
  97. http://www.topix.net/content/kri/1954371012356518807938181913012655219491
  98. US Bank Building, Sioux Falls
  99. 28 January 2007 – Provident: a Beacon in the Chattanooga Community – Memories – Chattanoogan.com
  100. Maclellan Building, Chattanooga
  101. http://www.nashvillewebreview.com/automat/nashville/popular_buildings/LandC/landc_brochure/LandC2.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  102. http://www.cardcow.com/21559/life-and-casualty-tower-nashville-us-state-town-views-tennessee-nashville/
  103. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-mercantileclock_13met.ART.State.Edition1.454c55b.html
  104. http://www.snarkymalarkey.com/?p=415
  105. Mercantile clock to tick once again | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Steve Brown | Real Estate | Business Columnist | Dallas Morning News
  106. The Center for American History
  107. ImageShack – Hosting :: 6006032fa.jpg
  108. Travis Tower, Houston
  109. ImageShack – Hosting :: 6006085yc.jpg
  110. http://www.wxresearch.org/newsletter/FALL95.TXT
  111. SixFlagsHouston.com | Photos :: Historical Photos :: globe
  112. Drury Plaza Hotel River Walk, San Antonio, Texas
  113. Drury Plaza Hotel- San Antonio Riverwalk, San Antonio
  114. KSL 5 Eyewitness Weather Tower at Trolley Square – Utah News from KSL-TV, Salt Lake City, Utah
  115. http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695216239,00.html
  116. ksl.com – Historic weather tower lights up skyline
  117. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4196/is_20060308/ai_n16164672. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  118. JS Online: Galvin envisioned weather flame on old Gas Co. building
  119. Wisconsin Gas Building sur Flickr : partage de photos !
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