Congressional Resolution H.R. 143 in 1870 established a Weather Bureau with the responsibility of 'forecasting the weather, displaying weather and flood signals for the benefit of navigation, commerce and agriculture'.
A limited attempt was made at river forecasting from Washington D.C. between 1870 and 1890, but results were less than satisfactory.
Poor communications, a lack of data, and limited knowledge of hydrologic principles prevented routine beneficial hydrologic forecasts from being made.


In 1893 Weather Bureau officials were charged with hydrologic responsibilities for their local areas.
An attempt was made to provide these officials with whatever data was available concerning past floods in their areas of responsibility.
A limited effort was made to install river staff gages.
By 1896, the Weather Bureau was making river forecasts for 135 locations from 22 Weather Bureau Offices.

The next major change in hydrologic forecasting occurred after World War II, in the late 1940's.
The Weather Bureau created two offices with the specific purpose of hydrologic forecasting.
These offices were called River Forecast Centers (RFCs).
The RFC at Cincinnati was chaged with forecasting the Ohio River drainage, while the RFC at Kansas City had responsibility for the Missouri River drainage and the Upper Mississippi drainage above and including St.Louis, Missouri.
Other RFCs quickly followed.