Bart_Adrian's Blog

   Contrary to popular belief, the Milwaukee weather-phone recording (414-936-1212) was not provided by the National Weather Service. Historically, the service was always provided by your local phone company...by Wisconsin Bell followed by Ameritech followed by SBC followed by AT&T...The local phone company would hire out private consulting meteorologists to actually make the recordings and provide the weather information. The meteorologost who made the recording each hour would usually name the company at the end of the recording, so you might be familiar over the years with Weather Central (out of Madison, WI), Murray & Trettel (out of Chicago), and WeatherCommand (also out of Chicago).
   Now here's the bottom line...A few weeks ago AT&T decided that the volume of callers to the weather-phone had shrunk to the point that it was no longer reasonable for them to provide the service. Thus the Milwaukee weather-phone has been disconnected. Can it be resurrected? I suppose if AT&T heard from enough customers requesting it. Clearly the demise of the weather-phone is a sign of the times. More than ever people are accessing weather information from other sources. Are you a user of the weather-phone?