Aachen Weather Beacon, Weather beacon at Haus Grenzwacht, Aachen, Germany
The Aachen Weather Beacon is a weather forecasting system with colored lights mounted on the roof of Haus Grenzwacht near the main station. The system uses different color combinations to show temperature trends and the chance of rain or snow.
The weather beacon was added in 1958 to Haus Grenzwacht, which was originally built in 1924 by architect Emil Fahrenkamp. The building underwent later changes before the lighting system for forecasting was installed on its rooftop.
The beacon emerged when cities were finding new ways to share information with residents through simple visual signals. The colored lights offered people in the neighborhood a quick way to check forecasts without needing a radio or newspaper.
The beacon sits on the rooftop of Haus Grenzwacht and can be easily spotted from Bahnhofsstrasse near the train station. The best time to observe it is at dusk when the colored lights become clearly visible against the sky.
The system runs on a simple color logic that many residents could memorize, turning it into a kind of visual language for the neighborhood. This ability to read the weather from outside proved especially valuable before mobile phones became common.
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