Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Victorians’ Ben Nevis data brought into 21st century

Post Thumbnail

For more than 20 years, a team of hardy Victorians painstakingly recorded vital information about the weather on top of Britain’s highest mountain.

The weathermen of Ben Nevis measured temperature, pressure, rainfall, sunshine, cloudiness, wind strength and wind direction, every hour – day and night – all the year round.

From 1883 to 1904, in often dreadful conditions, the volunteers dutifully went about their task which resulted in five hefty volumes of meteorological information.

But now their work from the past is being brought into the 21st century as scientists want thousands of people to help “digitise” all their data.

Operation Weather Rescue: Ben Nevis was launched today as part of the UK Natural Environment Research Council, NERC’s, free public event, UnEarthed, which will be held in Edinburgh, in November.

People can assist by typing the information gathered by the Ben weathermen from the original tables into a growing database.

This will help to shed light on how our climate is changing and give a better understanding of both the weather today and in the future.

Julia Maddock, NERC UnEarthed director, said: “We have set ourselves an ambitious target of rescuing two million data points by November so we can share what we have discovered at our free event.

“I am hoping that lots of people will be up for this challenge.”

Professor Ed Hawkins, of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the University of Reading, said: “These men lived up on Ben Nevis in often freezing conditions half the time taking measurements in the dark.

“They felt it was their duty to record all the atmospheric information, so unearthing this type of data feeds into the bigger picture and will help international researchers understand climatic changes and make better forecasts for the future.

“People who want to help don’t need to spend a lot of time on it – 15 minutes or even half an hour will help.”

Marjory Roy, a former superintendent of Met Office Edinburgh, is also supporting the campaign.

She is the author of “The Weathermen of Ben Nevis”, a fascinating insight into the work and lives of the men who gave their time on the top of the mountain to make the original weather observations.

Ms Roy said: “The conditions on top of the Ben could be pretty difficult, but they recorded the information meticulously.

“It’s very interesting as there are a lot of similarities in the weather between then and now especially between the rainfall comparisons.

“After they finished their work on the Ben some of the men went to Argentina on the Scotia expedition and worked in a climate office there.”

To help digitise the data collected by the Ben weathermen, visit www.weatherrescue.org

UnEarthed will be held at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh from November 17 to 19.

x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​x​