Helping with a weather project

This would make a good activity for a Geography Club or similar... It's another in a number of citizen science / collaborative projects which have been blogged here.

Two million pieces of ‘lost’ weather data collected over 20 years atop Ben Nevis by an intrepid team of Victorian meteorologists are at the heart of a new project to shed light on our changing climate. Scientists are now on a mission to rescue the data, which is still kept in the five original hefty volumes first published by the Royal Society of Edinburgh between 1890 and 1910. Now known as the ‘Weathermen of Ben Nevis’, the meteorologists recorded eight pieces of information about the weather every hour, day and night, 365 days a year.
They measured temperature, pressure, rainfall, sunshine, cloudiness, wind strength and wind direction from 1883 to 1904.
Hourly data was also taken at sea level at nearby Fort William and now researchers are asking from people across the Highlands and the rest of the UK to help digitise this unique data.


From the original tables, the information can be typed into a growing database and unearthing this data will shed light on how our climate is changing, bringing the past back to life to help understand the weather today and in the future.

Operation Weather Rescue: Ben Nevis was launched this week as part of Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) free public event, UnEarthed at Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh, from November 17-19, bringing the world of environmental science to the Scottish public.

Why not give it a go, and do your little bit for the project?


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