Cleveland Abbe - Meteorological Career

Meteorological Career

In order to compile his information, Abbe required a time-keeping system that was consistent between the stations. To accomplish this he divided the United States into four standard time zones. In 1883, he convinced North American railroad companies to adopt his time zone system. In 1884, Britain, which had already adopted its own standard time system for England, Scotland, and Wales, helped gather international consent for global time

One of the first things that he addressed was the forecasting dimension of meteorology. He recognized that predicting the weather required a widespread, yet coordinated, team. And so, with short term funding granted from the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, he enlisted twenty volunteer weather observers to help report conditions. Western Union agreed to permit the observers to communicate without charge, and Abbe and his team began work. He selected data-collecting instruments that would be critical to the success of weather predicting, and trained Army observer sergeants in their use. Field data was transmitted using code designed to minimize word count, and at the designated times, information flooded the transmission stations. Clerks would then decode and record the messages, and manually enter data onto weather maps, which were then used to predict the weather.

On February 19, 1871, Abbe personally gave the first official weather report. He continued to forecast alone for the next six months, while simultaneously training others. He was joined in mid-1871 by two army lieutenants and a civilian professor in giving reports, and the team was then able to rotate the heavy workload. Abbe demanded precise language in the forecasts, and made sure every forecast covered four key meteorological elements: weather (clouds and precipitation), temperature, wind direction, and barometric pressure. By the end of the first year of reporting, over sixty copies of weather charts went to Congress, the press, and various scientific institutions. By 1872, Abbe regularly sent over five hundred sets of daily maps and bulletins overseas in exchange for European meteorological data. Abbe also insisted on verifying predictions. During the first year of operation in 1871, Abbe and his staff verified 69% of their predications; the annual report apologized for the other 31%, citing the pressure of time as the cause.

Abbe required that the weather service stay at the forefront of technology. Over time, the instrument division at the headquarters tested and calibrated thousands of devices, and even began to design and build their own instruments. By the end of the century, self-registering equipment came into use and the United States lead the meteorological world with 114 Class I (automatic recording) observation stations. Anticipating an increase in international cooperation, Abbe began to seek quality instruments calibrated to international standards. He enlisted Wolcott Gibbs of Harvard and Arthur Wright of Yale to design improved equipment. For comparison purposes, Abbe ordered a barometer from Heinrich Wild (director of the Nicholas Central Observatory in Russia), as well as an anemometer and several types of hygrometers from Germany. Abbe then invented an anemobarometer to test the effect of chimney and window drafts on barometers in enclosed spaces.

Abbe was elected Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1884. In 1912 the Royal Meteorological Society presented him with the Symons Memorial Gold Medal, citing his contribution “to instrumental, statistical, dynamical, and thermo dynamical meteorology and forecasting.” In 1916 he was awarded the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. Abbe died the same year after a lifetime of outstanding scientific achievement. He was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, DC.