First Published in 1970, A Century of Weather Service provides a comprehensive history of the birth and growth of the National Weather Service from 1870 to 1970 in America. It discusses important themes such as coping with disaster; American weather pioneers; a military weather service; The United States Weather Bureau; the air commerce age; weather in war; growth of a global weather service; calculated weather risks; the air we breathe; and one world of weather. The book closes with a chronology of the meteorological milestones of the American weather services from 1644 to 1970.

This is an important historical work for students of environmental geography and general readers interested in the topic.

‘Patrick Hughes has produced two popular accounts of the twistings and turnings and bureaucratic reshufflings from the original Signal Service to the Environmental Science Services Administration and the threshold of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)…Hughes's eye as a free-lance photographer has served him well… The book is suitable for "popular" libraries that need a well-produced, rapid overview of the subject.’

- James A. Ruffner, Bulletin American Meteorological Society, Vol. 51, No. 9, September 1970

Patrick Hughes, at the time of the publication of this book, was with Environmental Data Service, Environmental Science Services Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC.