The park was opened to the public on Monday 6 September 1875 with the following day's Sheffield Daily Telegraph reporting: ""The weather was fine. The Park looked in its gayest Summer dress. The walks were freshly gravelled, the flower beds were trim and well ordered."" In 1882 the Weston Park Weather Station was erected privately by the curator of the adjacent museum Elijah Howarth. Howarth was known as "Elijah the Prophet" because of his reputation for forecasting the weather, he prepared daily forecasts to warn miners of changes in air pressure that could trigger the release of dangerous gases, he recorded daily weather observations for 47 years. It is the official climatological station for Sheffield and since 1937 it has been run by the museum's staff. The station consists of thermometers housed in a Stevenson screen, tipping bucket and funnel rain gauges and a soil thermometer which takes readings at the depths of 30 cm and 100 cm. It is one of the oldest weather stations in the country and all records are freely available via computer database or printed media.