Irish Weather Rescue

Irish Weather Rescue hands volunteers scanned rainfall registers from Met Éireann's National Climate Archive and asks them to rescue the numbers inside. Choose a province, county, and station, then transcribe either monthly rainfall values or the names, observers, and units that explain them. A few careful minutes can unlock a record written more than a century ago.

What is Irish Weather Rescue?

This is citizen science with the satisfying texture of archive work. Irish Weather Rescue breaks a vast paper collection into small, legible jobs: pick a corner of Ireland, open a station register, and turn handwriting into structured climate data. The source material spans 1864 to 1951, so an ordinary-looking column of rain can extend a local record far beyond the digital era. Accuracy does not rest on one heroic typist. Multiple volunteers read the same material, agreement is used as a provisional check, and disputed values can return for more attention. That repetition makes the experience feel less like unpaid data entry and more like joining a very patient relay race between weather observers, archivists, scientists, and the public.

What you can do there

• Choose an Irish province, county, and weather station
• Transcribe monthly rainfall values from a scanned register
• Transcribe station names, observers, and measurement units

Why we picked it

The contribution is tiny enough to finish with a cup of tea and concrete enough to matter. You are not clicking a vague pledge or donating spare processor time; you are deciphering a real page whose data can strengthen long rainfall series. The mix of local geography, stubborn handwriting, and shared verification gives the work a quiet puzzle-box appeal.

How to get the most from it

Read the tutorial and field guide before choosing a workflow. Start with a place name you recognize, zoom in on the surrounding handwriting when a digit is unclear, and use the station-information panel as a reference. If one value remains genuinely ambiguous, follow the project's guidance instead of forcing certainty.

Good to know

Bring a computer, laptop, or tablet; the project explicitly says phones are not suitable. One month's rainfall sheet is estimated at roughly three minutes, though difficult handwriting may take longer. The FAQ includes short how-to videos, and signed-in participants can use Zooniverse tools to follow their activity and join discussions.

Who made it, and when?

Met Éireann is the credited creator or organization.