Weather Rescue - Oxford

How do historical weather logbooks help us understand the present and future climate?

Historical logbooks are very interesting documents containing varied and diverse information. Vast collections of these logbooks contain individual weather observations and provide us with an accurate instrumental measure of past weather and climate. Mapping past weather variations, especially at the time of extreme weather events, allows us to better understand weather risks today.

So is it a new way to study the past climate?

Data-rescue of historical logbooks has been taking place for decades, but to manually transcribe an almost inexhaustible number of logbooks by individual researchers would take thousands of human lifetimes. Through Zooniverse’s platform it is now possible to significantly reduce transcription time by sharing the transcription tasks with thousands of eager volunteers. That is why a number of projects have been hosted on the zooniverse to transcribe historical logbooks and weather records.

Why Oxford?

The Oxford Radcliffe Observatory is the longest continuously running weather station in the UK, with daily observations back to 1814. However, the barometer observations of atmospheric pressure have never been digitised, and their rescue will fill a gap in our knowledge. Future projects will explore the data from other long-running locations.

What if I can’t read numbers on the logbook page?

It is normal to be not able to read/understand some numbers in the data columns. In this case use your best guess to input numbers that you think you see. You can zoom in/out and use other hand-written values as context.

I'm a new transcriber, what happens when I make errors, will it ruin the whole dataset?

Don't worry - we all make mistakes! Each number is typed by at least 4 different people to allow us to remove occasional errors.

What happens to the transcribed data, how it will be used?

Once the project is complete, the raw data will be made available. Subsequently, the data will be used to generate a timeseries of pressure observations in Oxford, which will be used by researchers to map out the weather of the past in more detail. Progress can be monitored here.

I don't see my question here! Who can I talk to?

You can start discussions about any topic with other volunteers on the Talk section. Or talk to our team who will answer any questions you might have about the project as a whole, or specific identification issues. You can also stop by just to chat if you like!