The Abbe Meteorological Observatory
A weather station, the Abbe Observatory was maintained on Lafayette Circle, just uphill from the former Miami & Erie canal site, between 1916 and 1982. The station was named in honor of Cleveland Abbe, the first chief scientist of the US National Weather Service. Abbe, who trained as an astronomer at Pulkovo in Russia, was briefly head of the Cincinnati Observatory, before its relocation to Hyde Park. Here he made an attempt to begin a record of weather conditions to be used in weather forcasting but the project eventually succumbed to lack of funding (like the canal and the subway).
The observatory, which was also the residence of the chief meteorologist, was transferred to the University after the Weather Service discontinued its use. It is now a private residence [photo by JB Maynard 2011. Free use with attribution. Full-size image]
Photograph soon after construction, from Devereaux 1917, "Records at the Abbe Meteorological Observatory Compared With Those at the Government Building, Cincinnati." [pdf format]
See also Devereaux 1919, "Weather for Cincinnati Ohio for 130 years" [pdf format]
Annual summaries of temperature and precipitation records from the observatory [excel format]
Related webpages
ENSO events and Cincinnati weather