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.[ citation needed ]
In addition to displaying weather forecasts, some weather beacons have been used to signal victory or defeat for a professional sports home team.[ citation needed ]
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]
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.[ citation needed ]
Sioux Falls is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 118th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into northern Lincoln County. The population was 192,517 at the 2020 census, and in 2023, its estimated population was 206,410. According to city officials, the estimated population had grown to 219,588 as of early 2025. The Sioux Falls metro area accounts for more than 30% of the state's population. Chartered in 1856 on the banks of the Big Sioux River, the city is situated in the rolling hills at the junction of interstates 29 and 90.
The Columbia Center or Columbia Tower, formerly named the Bank of America Tower and Columbia Seafirst Center, is a skyscraper in downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The 76-story structure is the tallest building in the state of Washington, reaching a height of 933 ft (284 m). At the time of its completion, the Columbia Center was the tallest structure on the West Coast; as of 2017, it is the fourth-tallest, behind buildings in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The IDS Center is an office skyscraper located at 80 South 8th Street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Completed in 1973, it is the tallest building in Minneapolis, and the tallest building in the state at a height of 792 feet (241 m). It originally stood 775 feet 6 inches (236.37 m), though a 16-foot (4.9 m) garage for window washing equipment was added between 1978 and 1979. The structure rises to 910 feet (10,900 in) when including communications spires on the roof, indisputably the highest points in the city. The IDS was constructed as the headquarters of Investors Diversified Services, Inc.—now Ameriprise Financial. It also housed the headquarters of Dayton Hudson Corporation from 1972 until 2001.
Minneapolis City Hall and Hennepin County Courthouse, designed by Long and Kees in 1888, is the main building used by the city government of Minneapolis, as well as by Hennepin County, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The structure has served as mainly local government offices since it was built, and today the building is 60 percent occupied by the city and 40 percent occupied by the County. The building is jointly owned by the city and county and managed by the Municipal Building Commission. The Commission consists of the chair of the County Board, the mayor of the City of Minneapolis, a member of the County Board and a member of the Minneapolis City Council. The County Board chair serves as the president of the Commission and the mayor serves as the vice president. The building bears a striking resemblance to the city hall buildings in Cincinnati and Toronto. The City Hall and Courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Trolley Square is a partially enclosed shopping center located in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is considered to be a trendy high-end center. The center is near downtown Salt Lake City and the UTA TRAX light-rail system.
WWTC is a commercial radio station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and serving the Twin Cities region. It is owned by Salem Media Group and broadcasts a conservative talk radio format.
The Life & Casualty Tower is a skyscraper in Nashville, Tennessee located at 401 Church Street. It stands 152.5 meters (409 ft) and has 30 floors. It was designed by Edwin A. Keeble, with structural engineering done by Ross Bryan Associates, and was finished in 1957. It was Nashville's first true skyscraper and the tallest in Tennessee until 1965, when 100 North Main Street in Memphis surpassed it.
The Canada Life Building is a historic office building in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The fifteen-floor Beaux Arts building was built by Sproatt & Rolph and stands at 285 feet (87 m), 321 feet (97.8 m) including its weather beacon.
KELO-TV is a television station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States, affiliated with CBS, MyNetworkTV, and The CW Plus. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios on Phillips Avenue in downtown Sioux Falls; its transmitter is located near Rowena, South Dakota. KELO-TV is broadcast by three high-power semi-satellites—KDLO-TV in Florence, KPLO-TV in Reliance, and KCLO-TV in Rapid City. These transmitters and others, together branded as the KELOLAND Media Group, broadcast KELO programs to all of South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota, and northwestern Iowa, an area the station calls "KELOLAND".
731 Lexington Avenue is a 1,345,489 sq ft (125,000.0 m2) mixed-use glass skyscraper on Lexington Avenue, on the East Side of Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Opened in 2004, it houses the headquarters of Bloomberg L.P. and as a result, is sometimes referred to informally as Bloomberg Tower. The building also houses retail outlets, restaurants and 105 luxury condominiums. The residence section of the building is known as One Beacon Court and is served by a separate entrance.
The Gulf Tower is a 44-story, 177.4 m (582 ft) Art Deco skyscraper in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The tower is one of the major distinctive and recognizable features of the city and is named for the Gulf Oil Corporation.
KCAU-TV is a television station in Sioux City, Iowa, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Gordon Drive in Sioux City, and its transmitter is located near Hinton, Iowa.
Citizens Republic Bancorp was a bank holding company for Citizens Bank, headquartered in Flint, Michigan. It merged with FirstMerit Bank in June 2013. It operated 219 branches and 248 ATMs in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio. FirstMerit merged with Huntington Bancshares in 2016.
Ayala Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Makati, the Philippines. It is one of the busiest roads in Metro Manila, crossing through the heart of the Makati Central Business District. Because of the many businesses along the avenue, Ayala Avenue is nicknamed the "Wall Street of the Philippines" and dubbed in the 1970s and 1980s as the "Madison Avenue of the Philippines".
The Berkeley Building is a 26-story, 495-foot (151 m) building located at 200 Berkeley Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. It is the second of the three John Hancock buildings built in Boston; it was succeeded by the John Hancock Tower. The building is known for the weather beacon at its summit, which displays distinctive light patterns as weather forecasts. The Berkeley Building is the 25th-tallest building in the city.
Midtown Plaza is a city district in downtown Rochester, New York. The site was originally occupied by an indoor shopping mall designed by Victor Gruen and opened in 1962. Although it was primarily promoted as a retail space, Gruen's vision was for the plaza to function as an all-purpose community space to revitalize the downtown area. The original mall was closed in 2008 after a decline in retail activity and partially demolished. Since 2010 the site has been redeveloped with new buildings and an open lot known as Parcel 5.
The 320 South Boston Building is a 22-story high-rise building located in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was originally constructed at the corner of Third Street and Boston Avenue as a ten-story headquarters building for the Exchange National Bank of Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1917, and expanded to its present dimensions in 1929. The addition brought the building's height to 400 feet (122 m), making it the tallest building in Oklahoma. It lost this distinction in 1931, but remained the tallest building in Tulsa until Fourth National Bank was completed in 1967. It is now included in the Oil Capital Historic District.
The Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day fire destroyed two buildings, covering an entire block of Downtown Minneapolis on November 25–26, 1982: the 16-story headquarters of Northwestern National Bank and the vacant, partially demolished location formerly occupied by Donaldson's department store, which had recently moved across the street to the new City Center mall. Nobody was injured or killed as a result of the fire, though 10 firefighters were treated at hospitals.
Norwest Corporation was a banking and financial services company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. In 1998, it merged with Wells Fargo & Co. and since that time has operated under the Wells Fargo name.
The MLC Building is a landmark modernist skyscraper in the central business district of North Sydney, on a block bounded by Miller Street, Denison Street and Mount Street. Planned in 1954 and completed in 1957, the complex was designed in the modernist Post-war International style by architects, Bates, Smart & McCutcheon. Its completion marked the appearance of the first high-rise office block in North Sydney and the first use of curtain wall design. Built to provide much-needed office space for the Mutual Life & Citizens Assurance Company Limited, the building continues to be primarily-occupied by its original tenants. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 January 2024.
♪ If you wanna know / what the weather will be / just look up to the top / of the Chiquita Building. ♪