Stormy weather and great loss of life on the Great Lakes occurred during the seasons of 1868 and 1869, prompting the citizenry to call for action. An Act of Congress was passed on February 9, 1870 and signed by President Ulysses S. Grant mandating the office of the Secretary of War to monitor the weather and to issue warnings. The National Weather Service traces its history to that service.

Upon orders from the U.S. Signal Corps, a weather bureau office opened in Chattanooga on January 8, 1879 at the southwest corner of Ninth and Market streets. Signing the pages of the record book the next day was Chattanooga’s first professional meteorologist, Benjamin Lloyd (“B.L.”) Goulding, Sgt. Signal Services USA.

B.L. Goulding moved to Chattanooga in 1878 to prepare for the opening of the weather bureau. He had already experienced much in his life’s journey.

Goulding was born in 1844 near Augusta, Georgia as part of the latest generation of an affluent family of English ancestry.

Thoughts of going to college suddenly vanished after the Civil War started. Seventeen year-old B.L. Goulding enlisted in the Confederate army, and participated in battles on the Georgia coast.
He contracted malaria, and was sent home with a furlough in his pocket. Though he was on leave, he joined another regiment and fought in the Chattanooga-to-Atlanta campaigns. After fighting in the Atlanta campaign, he was captured and imprisoned. At the time of his release in 1865, he weighed only eighty-one pounds.

After returning to his home in Georgia, he took an extended tour of Europe, served in the Intelligence office at Macon, and was principal of the Roswell Academy. He later moved to New York City to start B.L. Goulding and Company, a manufacturer of stationery and druggists’ products. He eventually moved back home to the south.

Weather forecasting was primitive in Goulding’s years at the local weather bureau. However, he was able to communicate with observers to the north on the Tennessee River, and relayed messages alerting citizens of advancing floods.

Just two months after the weather bureau opened, its offices were relocated to the court house on Walnut Hill. In 1893, the headquarters moved to the U.S. Custom House (still standing at Eleventh and Lindsay streets). Nationally, weather reporting was moved to the Department of Agriculture. By 1899, there were six people employed at the local office. In 1909, the new James Building became the weather home, since its height and central location aided in monitoring and reporting the weather.

B.L. Goulding spent seven years with the local weather bureau. He had many years remaining for careers in both civic work and business. Goulding helped to organize the Chattanooga Art, Chattanooga Historical, and Chattanooga Library associations. He also had roles in the Chattanooga Tobacco, Essex and Smith Engine, and Howard Hydraulic Cement companies. Goulding was also active in the United Confederate Veterans.

Each day must have been seen as a new opportunity to accomplish something, for he maintained a diary beginning in 1859. Though hit by automobiles three times in 1929, the then-Captain B.L. Goulding continued to be active as a senior citizen. He took long, daily walks - aided by his gold-headed, tortoise-shell cane - but napped after lunch.

Just one month before his passing in 1934, the ninety year-old was quoted in a February, 19, 1934 Chattanooga Times interview as saying “I’ll be in the parade if they have one.” Goulding had always enjoyed the many reunions of Civil War soldiers in Chattanooga.

B.L. Goulding is buried in the Confederate Cemetery between Third and Fifth streets. His interest in weather was reflected in his will, in which he created a trust fund to aid flood victims. Never married, he left much of his estate to his extended family.

Goulding’s legacy of the weather bureau was passed down to the generations who followed him. These are some of the milestones of weather reporting for the Chattanooga area which occurred after Goulding.

(1934) – Downtown office moves again, to the new Federal Building.

(1939) – Nationally, the weather bureau was reorganized under the Department of Commerce.

(1940) – All local weather monitoring is consolidated at Lovell Field (now Chattanooga Municipal Airport). A remote weather station was established in 1930 at the new Lovell Field.

(1950’s-1960’s) – Harve Bradley and John Gray become well-known local weather forecasters on television. John Gray uses a map with weather icons that were animated by means of a revolving polarizing lens. Harve Bradley amuses listeners by often referring to Colorado and Wyoming as “those square states.”

(3/25/1964) “Granny Versus the Weather Bureau” airs on WDEF Channel 12 in Chattanooga. This is an episode of “The Beverly Hillbillies” where Granny argues with the local weather bureau over the accuracy of her pet beetle’s forecasts versus the bureau’s reliance on satellites and balloons. Granny wins the argument when it rains in California despite an official forecast for sunny skies.

(1966) – “Probability Forecasting” is included at the end of daily weather reports, indicating likelihood of precipitation.

(9/3/1967) – Weathermen Sam DeLay, Berl Henry, Hugh Pritchard, Delbert Robertson, and Harold Smith are featured in a Chattanooga Times interview. These gentlemen served Chattanooga for many years. They recorded weather announcements which the public could hear by dialing a telephone number. Dial-a-Prayer and Time of Day Service were also popular automated audio.

(3/17/1973) – Heavy rains result in the St. Patrick’s Day floods of Chattanooga. The local U.S. Weather Service keeps the public alerted and informed, even though the employees had to evacuate the flooded Lovell Field. Meteorologist Delbert Robertson worked from his home, then a neighbor’s home, and communicated the status and forecast to local media.

(1974) – Ed C. Higdon becomes U.S. Weather Service chief in Chattanooga.

(1978) – Weather Station WXK-48 begins 24-hour daily weather reporting.

(1981) - Neal Pascal begins weather forecasting at WTVC Channel 9.

(1982) – The Weather Channel is launched, and provides 24-hour weather reports.

(1985) - Paul Barys joins WRCB Channel 3 as weather forecaster.

(3/12/1993) - The Great Blizzard of 1993 begins in the Eastern United States. The Chattanooga weather bureau warns that the unseasonable warm temperatures will drop, and that record snowfall will occur. Many residents are left without electricity for days.

(9/23/1994) – Chattanooga Times reports that closure proceedings will begin in January for the local weather office. The notion surfaced during the Reagan administration, but was opposed by local residents who believed that the area's topography required a local weather service.

(1995) – An office in Morristown, Tennessee assumes weather monitoring for East Tennessee while Atlanta handles north Georgia.

(2003) – Huntsville, Alabama station opens.

If you have memories of the local weather bureau or have information on Capt. B.L. Goulding, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.

Lovell Field became weather central in 1940. Click to enlarge.