On February 9th, 1870, a joint Congressional Resolution that required the Secretary of War “to provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent and at other points in the States and Territories…and for giving notice on the northern (Great) Lakes and on the seacoast by magnetic telegraph and marine signals, of the approach and force of storms” was introduced and passed. President Ulysses S. Grant signed it into law, authorizing the Secretary of War to establish a national weather service within the U.S. Army Signal Service’s Division of Telegrams and Reports.