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Beaumont/Port Arthur Weather Station History

The first weather observation site to report in the Golden Triangle of Southeast Texas was a volunteer observation site in the city of Beaumont, at the old post office, in November 1901. In 1911, the site was moved to the Griffing Brothers Nursery, which was at the intersection of Twin City Highway and Las Palmas. In June of 1914, the site moved to 738 Fifth Street. During this early time frame, the site recorded high temperature, low temperature, and 24 hour rainfall.

Beaumont became a first-order station, recording hourly temperature, dew point, wind direction, speed, and pressure when the U.S. Weather Bureau, part of the Department of Agriculture, where it established an office on February 1, 1917, at 501 Fifth Street, named the Post Office & Custom House. During a renovation of the structure from November 12, 1936 through November 5, 1937, the observation site moved next door, to 500 Fifth Street.

The office then moved to the Beaumont Municipal Airport on May 29, 1940, which was located 6 miles west of Beaumont. On March 8, 1944, the Weather Bureau Office made the big move 15 miles to the southeast to Nederland, where Jefferson County Airport is located. The site was moved 100 feet to the northwest in 1953 to the terminal building at the airport. In 1969, the U.S. Weather Bureau changed its name to the National Weather Service, and it was placed within the newly formed Department of Commerce in 1970.

The Weather Service Office moved to Hangar Number 1 on July 15, 1982. By 1995, modernization of the National Weather Service led to the closing of the Beaumont/Port Arthur Weather Office in August of that year; an ASOS (Automated Surface Observing System) was left at that site to continue the climatology of the area, for support of airport operations, terminal forecasts, zone forecasts, and for verification of severe weather in the immediate area. The National Weather Service Office in Lake Charles assumed warning responsibility for their six counties in Southeast Texas: Jasper, Newton, Tyler, Hardin, Orange, and Jefferson.