Weather Archive Africa

Weather Archive Africa turns archival triage into bite-size citizen science. You inspect old meteorological forms, help identify their station and date, or flag images whose damage, darkness, or contrast could obstruct later digitisation.

What is Weather Archive Africa?

The project sits one careful step before transcription. Its source material is a vast collection of weather-form images rescued from film and fiche, and the immediate job is to decide which records are identifiable and readable enough to move forward. The landing page offers two workflows: one for locating station and date information, and another for spotting image-quality trouble. That narrow focus gives each contribution a satisfying archival logic. A smudged heading or missing month is not just clerical grit; it determines whether a page of observations can be connected to a real place and time. The surrounding research and FAQ pages explain how those small judgments support a longer path toward usable historical climate data.

What you can do there

• Identify station names and dates on weather forms
• Flag damaged, dark, or low-contrast images

Why we picked it

This is citizen science with a refreshingly visible hinge: before researchers can mine old observations, somebody has to tell the promising sheets from the murky ones. The pairing of quick image decisions with a continent-scale archive makes modest volunteer clicks feel connected to a much larger recovery effort.

How to get the most from it

Start with the station-and-date workflow if you enjoy reading old forms, or choose the image-quality workflow for quicker visual judgments. The project estimates about 30 seconds to one minute per image, so a five-minute visit is useful; read the research page first if you want the archival backstory.

Good to know

This stage catalogs and quality-checks images; it does not yet ask you to transcribe all the weather readings. The interactive workflow, account prompts, mobile behavior, audio, and accessibility were not executed here. Live counters appeared inconsistent during review, and the project cannot be embedded outside its own site.

Who made it, and when?

ICARUS and Copernicus Climate Change Service project team is the credited creator or organization. The earliest supported launch date we found is October 21, 2025.