Heather Luna (she/her) 🌱Aug 4, 2023
Ed Hawkins

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
Aug 4, 2023 at 12:28pmWeb
Show threadWolfgang PomrehnAug 4, 2023
@ed_hawkins
I wonder why colonial authorities kept no records and why the young state was so poor, that nor proper reporting system was set up for the first 20 years.
Show threadEd HawkinsAug 4, 2023
@WolfgangPomrehn The RoI observations exist on paper, have been transcribed in the same project and have been made openly available. Met Éireann now has the responsibility to integrate the data within their own records.
Show thread@ NovaNaturalist HAS ALSO MOVEDAug 4, 2023
@ed_hawkins Raises a very serious question of what the British Government has done with pre-partition weather records for what was then part of UK, but is now the Republic. 🧐 Its not like there is no interest in weather records for mid-19th C Ireland.
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.