Members of the public are invited to become citizen scientists by taking part in an online data rescue project
October 14th, 2025
Met Éireann is calling on the public to help rescue millions of historic weather observations currently held in handwritten paper records.
The Irish Weather Rescue Project aims to digitise 3.5 million historic rainfall observations from 763 stations across Ireland. Members of the public are invited to transcribe the Rainfall Registers Series that dates from 1864 to 1951 which is held in the National Climate Archive, managed by Met Éireann.
An example of one of the handwritten Rainfall Registers held in the National Climate Archive
Climatological series, such as these Registers, are vital for understanding climate change, by providing a detailed picture of how rainfall patterns have changed over long timescales. They are also important for the verification of climate models, improving the accuracy of future climate projections which are essential to support national climate resilience policy-making and planning. By converting these handwritten records into digital formats, participants are helping to make this important data accessible now and into the future.
Dr Ciara Ryan, Climatologist at Met Éireann said:
“This project is a chance for members of the public to make a real and lasting contribution to climate research. Digitising these records provides access to valuable data that will improve our understanding of Ireland’s climate variability and in particular, changes in the frequency and magnitude of extreme rainfall events over the past 160 years, and their possible link to human-caused climate change.”
Volunteers will help preserve an important part of Ireland’s climate history, unlocking data collected by dedicated weather observers over many decades. This project is part of a larger data rescue initiative, which Met Éireann will undertake alongside other national partners to broaden our understanding of Ireland’s climate.”
Dr Rhonda McGovern, Postdoctoral Researcher and coordinator of the Irish Weather Rescue Project at Met Éireann, said:
“Through the initial pilot phase of the Irish Weather Rescue Project, 300 volunteers have transcribed almost 10,000 months’ worth of historic observations from weather stations across Ireland. Volunteers can transcribe the rainfall values or information such as station names, units of measurements or the named observer. To ensure high levels of accuracy, each observation will be transcribed four times and participants can track their progress over time.
This is an online project that you can contribute to from your sofa or your kitchen table, anywhere in the world, so if you are passionate about Irish weather, history or climate action, visit irishweatherrescue.ie to join.”
Using the Zooniverse platform volunteers can access images of the weather records and templates to transcribe the data. Detailed instructions, an online video tutorial and supports are provided along with a discussion forum where volunteers can interact with the project team. Once digitised, the data will be made available to researchers and shared with national and international data repositories. Throughout the course of the project, Met Éireann will provide updates on the progress and showcase the value of the volunteers’ work.
A volunteer transcribing data on the Irish Weather Rescue Project on Zooniverse
For more information and to join the Irish Weather Rescue Project, visit www.irishweatherrescue.ie