This small network of historic climatologists travel the world to interpret long forgotten weather observations buried in crumbling diaries, ledgers, ship logs and letters, giving researchers a more nuanced picture of climate change.
On the wall of his Georgetown University office, climate scientist Dagomar Degroot keeps a framed copy of a 16th century map of the Arctic.
Victoria Slonosky of Montreal has spent the last 25 years, deciphering meticulous notations of early weather observers — missionaries, doctors, farmers, and fur traders — dating back as far as the 17th century. She even plans family vacations to European cities where she dives into archives while her husband and children visit the sites.
The problem is these records are on paper. Slonosky is determined to change that, and is spearheading a project to rescue a century of long-forgotten weather observations taken at McGill Observatory. To pass the time, she volunteered to read books for people who couldn’t read for themselves. That experience inspired her to recruit volunteers to type and transcribe the historical weather observations that she couldn’t type for herself.
Slonosky also works on projects for Environment and Climate Change Canada to rescue ancient data from other sources in Canada. It is then fed into climate models with other historical weather data rescued from around the world to make climate predictions more accurate. Xiaolan L. Wang, a senior research scientist at ECCC, says her work is invaluable.
Mock says he looks at the weather observations recorded by British sailors in the 18th and 19th centuries “because I’m actually going to find something new.” He scours British Royal Navy ship logs to find out if events like the recent flooding in British Columbia or the droughts in California have any precedent.
The 57-year-old says the key to unlocking historical weather records is to “be a bit of a detective.” “They come wrapped like a precious Christmas present,” he says. “Then when you are finished you have to learn how to tie them up properly.”
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