The National Weather Service (NWS) is the U.S. federal agency responsible for providing weather forecasts, hazardous weather warnings, and other weather-related products to protect public safety, operating under NOAA and headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland. Its origins trace back to February 9, 1870, when President Ulysses S. Grant signed a joint resolution establishing a weather service under the U.S. Army Signal Service, led by Brigadier General Albert Myer, with pioneering figures like Cleveland Abbe (who issued the first "probabilities" forecasts) and Increase A. Lapham (a storm-warning advocate) shaping its early mission. The agency became a civilian enterprise in 1891, renamed the U.S. Weather Bureau, and adopted its current name in 1970. Today, the NWS carries out its task through national and regional centers plus 122 local Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) across the country. Because it is a federal agency, most of its products are in the public domain and available free of charge to organizations and the general public.