Dear Tom,
Why are the “official” weather readings for cities done at the airports? No one lives there!
Dana Swope, St. Louis, Missouri
Dear Dana,
Before the days of aviation, the U.S. Weather Bureau (the precursor agency to today’s National Weather Service) sited its offices and weather observation stations in or near the downtown sections of the nation’s cities. In Chicago, the Weather Bureau had its offices in the Loop and at the University of Chicago on the South Side.
With the growth of commercial aviation in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, and the necessity for weather data at the airports, the Bureau added observationa stations at those locations. By the 1980s, however, cost constraints mandated the closure of most non-airport observation stations, and so the airport locations became the “official” sites.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or asktomwhy@wgntv.com (Mail volume precludes personal response.)
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
