Hydrometeorological Prediction Center - History

History

From the early days of organized weather collection in the United States, a central facility was used to gather and disseminate data. Originally, this task occupied a single room within the United States Army Signal Service in Washington, D.C. Reports were collected via telegraph and general forecasts were made for the country.

While HPC's roots lie deep in the past, the organization can be most directly traced to the formation of the Analysis Center by Circular Letter 39-42, signed by Weather Bureau Director Francis W. Reichelderfer on March 5, 1942. Operations began on March 16, 1942, with the unit collocated with the Weather Bureau Central Office at 24th and M Streets NW in Washington, D.C. Initially the unit was sometimes referred to as the Master Analysis Center.

In 1947, the Analysis Center was combined with the Air Force Master Analysis Center and the Navy Weather Central to create the Weather Bureau-Air Force-Navy (WBAN) Analysis Center. Operations commenced on June 16, 1947, at 24th and M Streets NW. By early 1950 the WBAN Analysis Center consisted of 150 employees. Medium range forecasting was done nationally to 54 hours in the future. Charts and maps were created at this facility for national distribution.

In July 1954, the Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit (JNWPU) was created to test out numerical weather prediction techniques by computer. This unit co-located with the WBAN analysis center to form the National Weather Analysis Center, which was located in Suitland, Maryland. When the two units merged, the name changed to the National Meteorological Center (NMC) in January 1958. When the JNWPU dissolved in 1961, NMC became an independent organization from Global Weather Central and Fleet Numerical Weather Central. Research and computer processing abilities increased over the years, which allowed for the first global forecast model to run by June 1966. By January 1975, much of the facility, minus the computers, moved to the World Weather Building, located in nearby Camp Springs, Maryland.

NMC changed its name to NCEP, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction on October 1, 1995. The HPC become a subunit of NCEP, as did a number of other national centers such as the Climate Prediction Center, Environmental Modeling Center, National Hurricane Center, Ocean Prediction Center, Storm Prediction Center, Aviation Weather Center, NCEP Central Operations, and the Space Environment Center. During August 2012, HPC moved to a new building, the National Center for Weather and Climate Prediction (NCWCP), in College Park, Maryland.