Cleveland Abbe

Cleveland Abbe
Cleveland Abbe was born December 3, 1838 – Died October 28, 1916. He was born in New York, to a prosperous merchant family. His Father was George Waldo Abbe was a wealthy merchant and philanthropist.  As a child, he attended the David B. Scott Grammar School. In 1857 he graduated from the New York Free Academy. In 1860 he received a master's degree.  In 1864 he received a degree from Harvard. In 1871, Abbe was appointed chief meteorologist at the United States Weather Bureau. Abbe was the expert responsible for coordinating a team to predict the weather. Abbe demanded precise language to make sure every forecast covered 4 key meteorological elements:
weather , temperature, wind direction, and barometric pressure. By 1872, Abbe regularly sent over 500 sets of daily maps and bulletins overseas. Without Cleveland Abbe weather stations would not have consistent times. In 1879 he divided the United States into 4 different time zones. In 1883 he convinced the North American railroad to adopt his time zone system. The American Government soon adopted the time zones. In 1884 Britain helped him gather international consent for a global time. Abbe wanted the weather service to stay at the forefront of technology. The Weather service headquarters tested thousands of instruments for quality. By the end of the century, self-registering equipment came into use, and the United States led the meteorological world with 114 observation stations. Cleveland Abbe’s many contributions were important. He was a model for what would become the National weather service. He created time zones for North America so weather predictions could be more time accurate. He improved the technology of the time for more accurate weather predictions.