UKC

Operation Weather Rescue - Assistance Needed

© Matthew Hellewell

A group of scientists are appealing to the public for assistance in rescuing an important set of weather data collected on the summit of Ben Nevis. In the period between 1883-1904, meteorologists recorded temperature, precipitation, wind and other data that was stored in five volumes, but now the information must be digitised to be of use to current researchers.

Ben Nevis from Torlundy  © Matthew Hellewell
Ben Nevis from Torlundy
fhuaran, Apr 2012
© Matthew Hellewell

The public can help with the conversion at the weatherrescue.org website, which involves copying tables into a database. It is hoped that the Victorian information will bring new benefits to modern weather forecast models.

The data was collected as part of an exercise largely funded by the Scottish Meteorological Society, who paid for a pony track, a low-rise building and a telegraph wire to enable a group of meteorologists to gather information. A second station was set up in Fort William at the base of the mountain to allow comparisons to be made with the weather at sea-level.

The 'Operation Weather Rescue: Ben Nevis' project aims to have recovered two million data points from the mountain volumes by November.

Read more on BBC news.


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