LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Folks have been keeping an eye on the skies over the valley since long before there was even a city here, but on this day in history — August 15, 1935 — the National Weather Service opened its first official bureau office in Las Vegas.
The weather station got its start with local entrepreneur and newspaperman Charles “Pops” Squires. Twenty years earlier. Squires moved the area’s weather monitoring equipment to the lot behind his newspaper and printed his observations daily.
In 1912, the weather service made it official – and named him Las Vegas’s “official” observer.
He served as the city’s longest-serving volunteer meteorologist.
By 1928, Las Vegas was building both airports and military airfields, and the need for more in-depth forecasting became apparent.
In 1930, the field now known as Nellis Air Force Base opened, and five years later, the National Weather Service officially established its Las Vegas bureau.
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