I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa where one of the radio and TV stations had a
building downtown with a weather tower, so called, on top of the building.
It was a 4-legged tower that tapered up from the 4 corners of the building
to something like heavy gaged rohn tower at the top where the lights were
displayed. This weather tower was seen from all over and about 20 miles,
and more, in most directions. I recently typed in the old call letters of
the TV station but couldn't find info on the tower today so I typed in the
newer call letters and found it listed as a weather beacon. A youtube short
video talked about damage to the tower during one winter of harsh cold
tempes and ice build up on the tower. When ice chunks broke off when
melting, it broke 250 of the 4500 lights so they had to be replaced. The
tower, I learned is 500 feet plus the 2 or 3 stories of the building below.
No guy cables; it is free standing. Each of the 4 colors of light has a
little rhyming jingle but I don't know if I can recall them all. Let's see.
When it shines red, it means warmer weather is ahead. Green, nothing new
foreseen. White means colder weather is in sight and I believe blue refers
to rain. If anything is blinking, precipitation is in the forecast. I
lived in far northeast Des Moines, almost where the highway I80 crosses
north of Des Moines, which wasn't there when I was born but built later in
the fifties. Anyhow, I went to a friend's house out in the country, north
of the highway, and standing in the yard, I could see the tower during the
daylight hours without any trouble and I would have been at least 20 miles
north of the weather tower. I'd sure like a 3 element 40 up on top of that
baby. I was please to see the tower was still up and being maintained and
used by Ioeans to check the weather. Even during my tower climbing days, I
wouldn't have touched that tower with a ten foot pole. I'm guessing an
elevator is used internally but I believe I heard once, years ago from a
commercial tower guy I knew, that you have to stop at one point and climb
the 110 foot top to manually change the bulbs that are a foot apart but I'm
not certain of that.
Phil.
K0NX
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