Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory
Massachusetts
Perched on the summit of Great Blue Hill south of Boston, the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory has recorded weather continuously since February first, eighteen eighty-five, making it the longest unbroken weather record in the United States. Abbott Lawrence Rotch, heir to a Boston textile fortune, founded it and staffed it with full-time scientists at a time when most weather observations were part-time volunteer efforts. The observatory's researchers pioneered kite and balloon soundings of the upper atmosphere, laying groundwork for modern weather forecasting. Its one-hundred-and-forty-year data record has become a primary benchmark for studying climate change in the northeastern United States.
