Wikipedia:Today's featured article/January 6, 2014

Weather Machine is a lumino-kinetic bronze sculpture in the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, that serves as a weather beacon, displaying a daily weather prediction at noon. Designed and constructed at a cost of $60,000 by Omen Design Group Inc., the approximately 30-foot (9 m) tall sculpture was installed in 1988 in the northwest corner of Pioneer Courthouse Square. Two thousand people attended its dedication, which was broadcast live nationally from the square by Today weatherman Willard Scott. During its daily two-minute sequence, which includes a trumpet fanfare, mist and flashing lights, the machine displays one of three metal symbols as a prediction of the weather for the following 24-hour period: a sun for clear and sunny weather, a blue heron for drizzle and transitional weather, or a dragon and mist for rainy or stormy weather. The sculpture includes two bronze wind scoops and displays the temperature via vertical colored lights along its stem. The air quality index is also displayed by a light system below the stainless steel globe. Considered a tourist attraction, Weather Machine has been called "bizarre", "playful", "unique" and "wacky". (Full article...)

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