Weather Beacon

The beacon tower located on top of the Provident Life Building is 60 feet high, which with the 77-foot high building, makes it 137 feet above the ground. The actual beacon section is eight feet high. The entire assembly weighs 10 tons.

A hollow steel tube, two feet in diameter, supports the beacon. The supports that hold the tube are imbedded in the concrete of the building. There are no guy wires attached to the tube.

Steel rungs inside the tube allow maintenance work from the inside.

The face of the beacon is plastic, with 90 fluorescent tubes just beneath it. Three sets of fluorescent tubes give the beacon its color to forecast the weather.

Under the "code", green indicates no change in the weather, red signifies warmer and white calls for colder weather. Any of these colors flashing means precipitation.

The beacon is operated 24 hours a day. The correct color is set by means of six buttons operated by KFYR Radio. KFYR technicians set the buttons from the US Weather Bureau forecasts and can change the color at any time. The beacon indicates the weather forecast for the next 12 hours.

Read the weather beacon article from January 2015 North Dakota Water publication by clicking here.