Data rescue call to climate action

Public wanted to digitise weather records

- BY KEITH FALKINER

Help out from home on computer

MEMBERS of the public are being invited to become citizen scientists by taking part in an online data rescue project.

To mark Climate Action Week, Met Eireann is calling on the public to help rescue millions of historic weather observations currently held in handwritten paper records.

The Irish Weather Rescue Project aims to digitise 3.5 million historic rainfall observations from 763 stations across Ireland.

Members of the public are invited to transcribe the Rainfall Registers Series that dates from 1864 to 1951 which is held in the National Climate Archive, managed by Met Eireann.

Climatological series, such as these registers, are vital for understanding climate change, by providing a detailed picture of how rainfall patterns have changed over long timescales.

They are also important for the verification of climate models, improving the accuracy of future climate projections which are essential to support national climate resilience policy-making and planning.

By converting these handwritten records into digital formats, participants are helping to make this important data accessible now and into the future.