Show threadEd HawkinsMay 13, 2025
Of course, the only reason we know about Spring 1852 is the citizen science #RainfallRescue project which enabled the UK rainfall reconstructions to be extended back to 1836. Otherwise the record would be 106mm from Summer 1995. Summer 1976 and Spring 1893 had 107mm. www.bbc.co.uk/news/science...

UK's rainfall records rescued ...
Bluesky

Bluesky Social
Show threadEd HawkinsMar 26, 2025
We also need to thank @chrislintott.bsky.social and the @zooniverse.bsky.social team for building the Zooniverse platform that we used. It makes developing these projects possible for anyone. It's fair to say that #RainfallRescue broke records for citizen science participation in an online project.
Chris Lintott (@chrislintott.bsky.social)

Astronomer, writer and zookeeper. Oxford, Gresham and the Zooniverse. The human half of the Dog Stars podcast. New book: 'Our Accidental Universe' (UK/rest of world) and 'Accidental Astronomy (US) now out.

Bluesky Social
Show threadEd HawkinsMar 26, 2025
But, why are these hand-written observations important? Before #RainfallRescue the data before 1961 was largely missing. Now there are thousands of locations with rainfall data back to the 1870s, and hundreds back to the 1840s. There are more observations available for the 1880s than today.
Bluesky

Bluesky Social
Ed HawkinsMar 26, 2025
Five years ago today, most historical UK monthly rainfall observations were not available to scientists. But the 66,000 pieces of paper containing the data had been scanned. With covid lockdown approaching we saw an opportunity to transcribe the data. #RainfallRescue began... 🧵
Bluesky

Bluesky Social
Show threadEd HawkinsMar 26, 2025
We can also explore trends in extreme months. The wettest month of the year has become 20% wetter in the period since 1836. #RainfallRescue
Bluesky

Bluesky Social
Ed HawkinsMar 25, 2025
Five years ago today I set the Rainfall Rescue citizen science project live. Would anyone actually want to help transcribe millions of hand-written rainfall records from images of 66,000 sheets of paper? #RainfallRescue The next day was a bit surprising... www.bbc.co.uk/news/science...

Help needed to rescue UK's old...
Bluesky

Bluesky Social
Show threadEd HawkinsAug 4, 2023
@NovaNaturalist The #RainfallRescue project did also transcribe lots of observations for RoI and they are openly available, as are the original hand-written records. It is now the responsibility of Met Éireann to integrate them into their own records like the Met Office have with the UK data.
Ed HawkinsAug 4, 2023

It was the wettest July on record for both the Republic of Ireland & Northern Ireland.

The difference?

For Northern Ireland, the records start in 1836. For the Republic of Ireland, they only start in 1940.

Why?

It’s thanks to 16,000 volunteers who transcribed 5 million lost rainfall observations in the #RainfallRescue project!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60860397

UK's rainfall records rescued by volunteer army

We now have a clearer idea of when these islands were sodden or parched going back almost 200 years.

BBC News