Japan's weather bureau said on Tuesday that there was a 60% chance that the La Nina phenomenon would not occur and normal weather patterns would continue towards the Northern Hemisphere winter.

WASHINGTON (WHTM) — On Feb. 9, 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a joint resolution of Congress, creating the U.S. Weather Bureau, or as we call it today, the National Weather Service.

A week later on February 9, 1870, President Ulysses Grant signed the resolution into law. A new national weather bureau was born on November 1, 1870, within the US Army Signal Service Corps.

In the days before, the U.S. Weather Bureau — the predecessor to the National Weather Service — had been tracking a hurricane that was threatening the coast of Florida.