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]

"Weatherball" redirects here. For the antenna-protecting structure, see Radome.

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
  • New South Wales
  • Queensland
  • South Australia
  • Victoria
    • Carlton & United Brewery, Abbotsford (May 1958 − ????)[6]
    • IOOF Building (formerly MLC), 303 Collins Street, Melbourne (1973 – ????; non-functioning)[6][18]
    • 888 Collins Street, Melbourne (2016 − present)[19]
  • Western Australia
    • MLC Building (now Kingsgate Apartments), 171 St Georges Terrace, Perth (October 1957 – ????; dismantled)

Austria
  • Wetterleuchtturm, Ringturm, Vienna

Belgium

Canada

China

Denmark

Finland

Germany

Japan

Russia
  • Boiler House Weather Beacon, Ufa[32]

Sweden

Turkey

United Kingdom

United States
  • Hurstville
  • North Sydney
  • Brisbane
  • Brisbane
  • Adelaide
  • Abbotsford
  • Melbourne
  • Melbourne
  • Perth
  • Vienna
  • Brussels
  • Vancouver
  • Kitchener
  • Toronto
  • Montreal
  • Regina
  • Copenhagen
  • Copenhagen
  • Tampere
  • Aachen
  • Osaka
  • Stockholm
  • Istanbul
  • Coventry
  • Coventry
  • Glasgow
  • London
  • Phoenix
  • Fresno
  • Sacramento
  • San Francisco
  • Denver
  • Miami Beach
  • Orlando
  • St. Petersburg
  • Chicago
  • Chicago
  • Chicago
  • Des Moines
  • Dubuque
  • Sioux City
  • Covington
  • Lexington
  • New Orleans
  • Boston
  • Flint
  • Grand Rapids
  • Grand Rapids
  • Duluth
  • Minneapolis
  • Nicollet Island/East Bank
  • Riverside
  • Uptown
  • Montevideo
  • Rochester
  • Saint Paul
  • Minneapolis
  • Kansas City
  • Kansas City
  • St. Louis
  • Wellston
  • Billings
  • Helena
  • Omaha
  • New York City
  • Syracuse
  • Bismarck
  • Cincinnati
  • Cleveland
  • Oklahoma City
  • Tulsa
  • Portland
  • Pittsburgh
  • Pittsburgh
  • Pittsburgh
  • Reading
  • Sioux Falls
  • Sioux Falls
  • Sioux Falls
  • Watertown
  • Watertown
  • Chattanooga
  • Nashville
  • Amarillo
  • Dallas
  • El Paso
  • Houston
  • San Antonio
  • Salt Lake City
  • Salt Lake City
  • Salt Lake City
  • Newport News
  • Green Bay
  • Milwaukee
  • Oshkosh
  • Wausau

Notes
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  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=344vwknMlFA
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  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.
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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
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  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
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  88. Weather Ball 2 sur Flickr : partage de photos !
  89. Weather Ball sur Flickr : partage de photos !
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  93. Helena Last Chance Gulch
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  100. Chiquita Center, Cincinnati
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  111. "Sign in to OregonLive.com". The Oregonian.
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  138. ImageShack – Hosting :: 6006085yc.jpg
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