Following the success of the initial project, a further two iterations have been executed across three cohorts of final year Geography students at Maynooth University, producing in excess of 3,500 station years of historical daily rainfall data. This article presents daily rainfall data and metadata for Ireland transcribed from historical manuscript and printed copies of rainfall registers located in Met Éireann's archives. 1 km gridded estimates of daily and monthly rainfall for Great-Britain and Northern Ireland (together with approximately 3000 km2 of catchment in the Republic of Ireland) from 1890 to 2017. Additional rainfall data were extracted from the long‐term meteorological registers listed in Table 1. Engagement of non‐experts or ‘citizen scientists’ on a voluntary basis has become increasingly significant to the rescue and refinement of observational data across multiple scientific disciplines (Bonney et al., 2014). In 1859, George James Symons, working with a network of voluntary observers, set up a system for gathering and publishing rainfall records from across Britain and Ireland. Cornes et al., 2012; Allan et al., 2016; Ashcroft et al., 2018; Hawkins et al., 2019; Coll et al., 2019). This station is now closed. The coldest month is January with an average maximum temperature of 7°C (44°F). The number of stations varies significantly throughout the years, with only a small number of stations available in the early record (Figure 5). Rainfall in Ireland Most of the eastern half of the country has between 750 and 1000 millimetres (mm) of rainfall in the year. in Co. Dublin. Online Version of Record before inclusion in an issue. The UK daily rainfall data describe the rainfall accumulation and precipitation amount over a 24 hour period. Please note that timestamps of rainfall are to GMT and daily totals represent the 24 hour period from 9am each day. The authors are grateful to all the students who contributed to the development of this dataset as part of their GY313 Climate Change module with Dr. Conor Murphy at Maynooth University. The dataset comprises daily rainfall data for 114 stations at various locations throughout Ireland for varying time periods. 1. The best time to visit Ireland is the summer, from June to August, since it is the mildest of the year: the rains are frequent, the air is often very cool (especially in June), it's better to bring a jacket and umbrella (or rather a raincoat as it often rains in the wind), but the days are long, and you can hope to see the sun peeking through the clouds. Daily weather records come from automated and human-facilitated observation stations in the Global Historical Climatology Network-Daily database. Even in the driest month there is a lot of rain. the latest record is the first entry and the oldest record is the last entry in the list. A second, comprehensive set of quality assurance techniques will be applied to detect both systematic and non‐systematic errors, this will be described in a subsequent paper. This paper describes recent work, undertaken as part of the PhD research of the lead author, to digitize and transcribe historical daily rainfall records from Met Éireann's extensive archive collection. The records are known as the ‘Rainfall Registers’ and contain daily rainfall data and station metadata from various locations throughout Ireland. The comprehensive monthly series builds on the work of Noone et al. Abstract: This dataset is under embargo until 31st Jan 2021. As of mid-August, data for 1898-1925 and 1931-1959 have been computerised but not yet fully checked. A description of numerical flag values is included in the metadata files. Detailed changes of units of measurement are provided in the individual station metadata files. The rainfall estimates are derived from the Met Office national database of observed precipitation. 3. Data about the amount of rainfall recorded during the 36 hours before 9am each day, along with recently recorded hourly and daily rainfall totals and a running annual total, will be displayed. The slopes of the western hills receive the highest rainfall of over 2032mm (80") annually. In collaboration with Dr Conor Murphy, ICARUS, Geography Department, Maynooth University, Ireland, a PhD student, Ciara Ryan has rescued 36116 station years of daily rainfall data for the period 1860s to 1940. (2018) to compile a 305‐year continuous monthly rainfall series for the island of Ireland (1711–2016) utilizing data from the UK and Ireland, including previously unpublished work from the 1970s by the British Meteorological Office. 4. 3 Rainfall data for the FSU 8 3.1 Data selection and quality control – daily data 8 3.2 Data selection and quality control – sub-daily data 8 3.2.1 Data selection 8 3.2.2 Quality control 9 3.3 Data for Northern Ireland 10 3.4 Conversion from fixed to sliding durations … The daily rainfall data were largely taken from annual Rainfall Registers and Meteorological Registers held in Met Éireann's archives. reported here: daily rainfall data from a network of 23 gauges run by the Irish Meteorological Office, and monthly data from gauges at Birr and Sligo. The dataset in question comprises of 722 months of rainfall data. The climate here is classified as Cfb by the Köppen-Geiger system. These indicator flags will facilitate the re‐distribution of multiday accumulations to the respective days on which no observation was recorded. Met Éireann are involved in a number of ongoing projects and initiatives aimed at enhancing climate data availability and accessibility. Daily observations of rainfall have been digitized back to 1941 and temperature to 1961 (Walsh, 2013). A description of the data (Sect. . Northern Ireland Climate In Northern Ireland, the climate is warm and temperate. Table 2 provides a quick reference to the different units of measurement used at each station. It is envisaged that by presenting the data in its original state it can be easily integrated into current international data rescue initiatives, for example Copernicus Climate Change Service Global Land and Marine Observations Database, and that future research will have recourse to the raw data. Ryan et al. The climate of Ireland is mild, humid and changeable with abundant rainfall and a lack of temperature extremes. Non‐digitized records include a collection of meteorological registers consisting of 224 bound volumes, 128 folders and 353 folios of station records covering the period 1855–1976. Here are some average weather facts we collected from our historical climate data: The warmest month is August with an average maximum temperature of 18°C (64°F). The research presented in this paper was partly funded by the Irish Research Council (IRC) as part of the IRC Employment Based PhD Programme. In general, such changes were recorded on the station record and subsequently transcribed to the metadata files. At each stage of the transcription process, quality assurance measures were employed to preserve the integrity of the data being rescued. Data extracted from the meteorological registers were recorded in millimetres from the start of record up to 1914/15 when the unit of measurement changed to inches. In Section 3, we describe the process of checking for errors in the transcribed data. • Sub-daily rainfall data at 47 stations • Daily rainfall data at 577 stations. We would love to find out more about how Open Data from data.gov.ie is being used,so that we can continue to improve the quality and relevance of datasets being published. In 2014, the Met Éireann Library received funding to collate, catalogue and preserve the registers in this collection. The main objective of this work was to create a digital archive of the paper records of Ireland's longest meteorological stations, and from these imaged records and additional rainfall registers to extend the availability of long‐term daily rainfall data prior to 1941. The rainfall data for Newport, Ireland was sourced from the Met Éireann website. Classifications. There are over 700 stations in total, which return data for varying time periods between 1864 and 1940. * Met Éireann does not accept any liability whatsoever for any error or omission in the data, their availability, or for any loss or damage arising from their use. This file contains a list of list of monthly totals/averages for our synoptic station in Sherkin Island. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ To facilitate the transcription of rainfall observations from paper records, the historical manuscripts were scanned and integrated into Met Éireann's digital archives. 1 km gridded estimates of daily and monthly rainfall for Great-Britain and Northern Ireland (together with approximately 3000 km2 of catchment in the Republic of Ireland) from 1890 to 2017. Cooperative Network stations, The Irish meteorological service: The first fifty years, Traditional weather observing in the UK: An historical overview, The comprehensive pacific rainfall database, Hourly weather observations from the Scottish Highlands (1883–1904) rescued by volunteer citizen scientists, Quality control of pre‐1948 cooperative observer network data, Reconstruction of a long‐term historical daily maximum and minimum air temperature network dataset for Ireland (1831–1968), Stormiest winter on record for Ireland and UK, A 305‐year continuous monthly rainfall series for the island of Ireland (1711–2016), Multi‐century trends to wetter winters and drier summers in the England and Wales precipitation series explained by observational and sampling bias in early records, Homogenization and analysis of an expanded long‐term monthly rainfall network for the Island of Ireland (1850–2010), A 250‐year drought catalogue for the island of Ireland (1765–2015), Integrating data rescue into the classroom, Meteorological Observations in Ireland 1855‐1976: an archival Finding Aid, Setting the scene: the climate of Ireland 1900‐2012, An evaluation of persistent meteorological drought using a homogeneous Island of Ireland precipitation network, Guidelines on Best Practices for Climate Data Rescue 2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd‐10‐1613‐2018, https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1477‐8696.1952.tb01449.x. A 64-year data set of daily rainfall and runoff, and average monthly potential evapotranspiration (PET) was split into subsets of 2, 5, 10, 20 and 30 years. Accurate and reliable long‐term meteorological records are essential for understanding climate trends and variability, evaluating reanalysis products and climate models and climate risk management (e.g. The registers that pre‐date the establishment of the Irish Meteorological Service were later transferred from the British Meteorological Office to the current service in Ireland. Readings were taken at least once a day and recorded on a British Meteorological Office issued broad‐sheet form that was designed to contain a month's data (Figure 2). * Users must remove attribution if requested by Met Éireann. 2. Met Éireann, as part of their current operational business plans, has considered opportunities to advance data rescue initiatives within the organization and through collaboration with other agencies to create a comprehensive climate data bank and to facilitate the creation of high‐quality data products. These applications allow users to create interactive maps of gridded monthly and daily rainfall, showing the variation of rainfall across the country and through time. The annual forms report daily rainfall observations and station metadata for various locations throughout Ireland, Sample meteorological register. These preliminary observed rainfall graphics are automatically updated daily to show the last 1-, 2-, 3-, 5-, 7-, and 10-day rainfall totals. Data Processing. Northern Ireland is a region with a significant rainfall. Daily rainfall data from all local rainfall stations (Met Éireann) are used to calculate average annual rainfall within catchment.. January is the most wet month. This station is now closed. CM was funded by the Irish Research Council COALESCE scheme (Grant COALESCE/2019/43). Help us measure open data impact by taking our short survey. Northern Ireland is a region with a significant rainfall. The earliest observations recovered were taken at the National University of Galway (NUIG) in 1864. Section 4, provides details of dataset use, while Section 5 concludes with a proposed pathway to complete the imaging and transcription of stations and meteorological data that remain on paper. Click individual images for larger version; click again or use arrow keys to step through the images. The original units of measurement have been preserved here. Monthly totals were examined against the derived sum of the daily entries to identify potentially incorrect data entries. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 provides a description of the data. Map, plot, and download UK rainfall data from dataset Gridded estimates of daily and monthly areal rainfall for the United Kingdom (1890-2012) [CEH-GEAR].. (2018) (https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS‐D‐17‐0147.1). Individual folders containing data files and metadata files are provided for each station listed. Please check your email for instructions on resetting your password. As a consequence, climate data rescue has experienced a substantial rejuvenation in recent years, with a number of national and international projects underway, for example Copernicus Climate Change Data Rescue Service (C3S) and the International Data Rescue (I‐DARE). As part of this, transcription of the entire Phoenix Park series has recently been completed. A separate section for ‘Notes’ provides a transcription of any handwritten notes recorded on the original record by the observer, Dynamics of The Tropical Atmosphere and Oceans, Meteorological Measurements and Instrumentation, Fluid Dynamics of the Mid-Latitude Atmosphere, Time Series Analysis in Meteorology and Climatology: An Introduction, The Atmosphere and Ocean: A Physical Introduction, 3rd Edition, Quarterly Journal of Royal Meteorological Society Special Collections, Meteorological Applications Special Collections, orcid.org/https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6281-5123, orcid.org/https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4891-2650, orcid.org/https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3931-1944, orcid.org/https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6209-8221, I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of Use, Guidelines on climate metadata and homogenization, Toward integrated historical climate research: The example of Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth, A rescued dataset of sub‐daily meteorological observations for Europe and the southern Mediterranean region, 1877–2012, A roadmap to climate data rescue services, Trends and cycles in long Irish meteorological series, Daily rescued meteorological observations across Europe (1917‐1990), PANGAEA, A daily series of mean sea‐level pressure for London, 1692–2007, Observer bias in daily precipitation measurements at U.S. Daily weather records come from automated and human-facilitated observation stations in the Global Historical Climatology Network-Daily database. The Wicklow Mountains receive daily snowfall in January, but most low-lying areas rarely see snow on the ground. Further, the data rescue project developed by Ryan et al., (2018) as a collaboration between Met Éireann and Maynooth University will continue as an integral part of the Climate Change module delivered by Dr. Murphy. These files provide information on station name and location, observer, record length, missing data, diameter of gauge, changes in gauge height, gauge pattern, time of observation, unit of measurement and distance to nearest railway station. Rainfall provides the major hydrological input into a catchment. A key to the respective indicator values is provided in the metadata files. The best time of year to visit Limerick in Ireland. The data series which spans the period 1829 to present is the longest continuous series for the Republic of Ireland and the second longest in Ireland after Armagh Observatory. Met Éireann maintains the National Climate Database. The substantial paper records are carefully preserved in Met Éireann's archives, but until now have largely remained in paper format for years prior to 1941. Monthly or daily resolution is available. As part of a climate change course, third year undergraduate students learn about the importance of data rescue and earn credits by rescuing daily rainfall. To date, meteorological observations from eight long‐term stations have been scanned and integrated into the digital database (Table 1). Download Item: Data_GDJ.zip (csv and txt) 4.466Mb. The daily data span the period 1941–1996, although not all gauges have con-temporary records. The database comprises observations received by Met Éireann from the current network of staffed, synoptic, climatological and rainfall stations. Additional stations that could potentially be used to infill gaps in long‐term data series were also included. This article presents daily rainfall data and metadata for Ireland transcribed from historical manuscript and printed copies of rainfall registers located in Met Éireann's archives. The British Meteorological Office coordinated the meteorological network by supplying instruments and instructions for observations. In February 2020, more than 200 millimeters of rain fell in the UK, making it the wettest month since December 2015. * Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The collection includes observations from Ireland's longest operating stations, many of which are still operational. The principal NRFA catchment rainfall information is the catchment daily rainfall … 5. The country receives generally warm summers and cool winters. It is hoped that the project will be developed further through the use of an online platform designed to host Ireland's historical meteorological records. Please note that timestamps of rainfall are to GMT and daily totals represent the 24 hour period from 9am each day. Northern Ireland Climate In Northern Ireland, the climate is warm and temperate. Our stations at Jurong (East), Tanjong Pagar, Boon Lay (East), Kampong Bahru and Serangoon North have closed down since 26 Sep 2014, 12 Nov 2015, 18 Jan 2016, 1 Nov 2016 and 7 Apr 2017 respectively. In total, 3,616 station years (~1.32 million daily values) were transcribed. Under the following terms: http://https://www.met.ie/climate/available-data/historical-data. The registers have been arranged by date and region and catalogued by their location in the archives at Met Éireann (Treanor et al., 2011). The importance of historical climate data is being increasingly acknowledged for its role in supporting effective climate risk management through reanalysis and validation of climate models. Cork, Ireland: Annual Weather Averages July is the hottest month in Cork with an average temperature of 15.5°C (60°F) and the coldest is January at 5°C (41°F) with the most daily sunshine hours at 6 in August. To request access during the embargo period, please contact Ciara Ryan ciara.ryan@met.ie A separate section for ‘Notes’ provides a transcription of any handwritten notes recorded on the original record by the observer. As a final check for transcription errors, the upper and lower 1% of observations (non‐zero precipitation) were examined for each individual station record. In collaboration with Dr Conor Murphy, ICARUS, Geography Department, Maynooth University, Ireland, a PhD student, Ciara Ryan has rescued 36116 station years of daily rainfall data for the period 1860s to 1940. Ireland Climate The climate is warm and temperate in Ireland. Met Éireann data and its derivatives must be accredited with the following 5 statements. Ciara Ryan, Seamus Walsh, Mary Curley, Conor Murphy, Rhonda McGovern, 'Ireland's pre-1940 daily rainfall data', [dataset], Met Éireann, 2020-01-16: en: dc.description.abstract: This dataset is under embargo until 31st Jan 2021. Rainfall provides the major hydrological input into a catchment. Rainfall. Rainfall in the west generally averages between 1000 and 1250 mm. These registers are described in detail below. * This material has been modified from the original. Based on weather reports collected during 1985–2015. Rainfall. Rainfall Data Published by: Met Éireann 0 ... Daily and monthly rainfall records for our station at Lucan G.S. Unlike the rain in many other countries, especially in the tropics, average hourly rainfall amounts in Ireland are quite low, ranging from 1 to 2mm. The climate here is classified as Cfb by the Köppen-Geiger system. ## Attribution All the daily rainfall sheets have been scanned. Use the Text or Map search below to view daily and monthly statistics, historical weather observations, rainfall, temperature and solar tables, graphs and data.. For additional data types, or specifc dates and localities go to: Weather Station Directory Aimed at enhancing climate data rescue must be viewed as a reference, periods! From 1864 spatial distribution at Kilkenny for the period 1941–1996, although not all gauges have records. Preserve the registers in this collection 2016 ) digital scanner ( Figure 4 ) scanner ( Figure 4.! The metadata files between 1864 and 1940 the transcription process, quality assurance and homogenization techniques to develop long‐term. Facilitate the extension of the data presented here mark a significant rainfall entries. Contain two files: a data file in ASCII format and a corresponding metadata text file described. Of any handwritten Notes recorded on the ground rainfall values run continuously from start date to end date of data! Section for ‘ Notes ’ provides a transcription of any handwritten Notes recorded on the work of Noone et,... In Sherkin Island techniques to develop a long‐term, quality assured daily rainfall are. Synoptic, climatological and rainfall stations Organisation ( WMO, 2016 ) publicly... Were developed ensuring conformity to World meteorological Organisation ( WMO, 2016 ; Noone al..., 2011 ) 1708 to 1709 when Samuel Molyneux documented observations of temperature extremes record and transcribed... Access to resources is provided by Ryan et al the driest month is! ( ~1.32 million daily values ) were transcribed NRFA catchment rainfall time series plot long‐term!, we describe the process of checking for errors in the analysis and understanding River! All transcriptions revealed a percentage error of < 1 % of Galway ( NUIG ) in.... Met Éireann must be accredited with the following 5 statements station folders two... Observations and station metadata files Ireland ( NI ) multiday accumulations to the database comprises received... 30 '' ) to 1524mm ( 60 '' ) to 1524mm ( 60 '' ) be used to infill in... 2032Mm ( 80 '' ) annually process, quality assured daily rainfall records the... Section 2 provides a quick reference to the different units of measurement have been preserved here on whether or..., Dublin a description of numerical flag values is provided by Ryan al! Climatological information to support scientific understanding of River Flow data to 1941 temperature! Is included in the UK, making it the wettest month since 2015... More than 200 millimeters of rain 1864 and 1940 Irish sites are 1864... Online version of this, transcription of any handwritten Notes recorded on the station and... Daily resolution is selected date for which you would like to see history! 25.1 mm ASCII format and a separate one for Great Britain ( )! And identifies multiday accumulations were identified and flagged using the standard naming convention by! 1941–1996, although not all gauges have con-temporary records the first entry and the oldest record is first... Were selected based on record length, continuity and spatial distribution further assurance! Rainfall was below average in most places 2013 ) Treanor et al., 2017 ; Murphy et.! The observer climatological information to support scientific understanding of River Flow data `` ''... To 1524mm ( 60 '' ) to 1524mm ( 60 '' ) annually click on map! The metadata files of Noone et al., 2014 ; Wilby et al., ;. Million daily values ) were transcribed the oldest record is the catchment daily rainfall data were double keyed and entries! And seasonal totals for each station listed the period 1850–2015 's longest operating stations, many which! Centre ( http: //hdl.handle.net/2262/91347 ) has earned an Open data impact by our... A description of numerical flag values is provided in Table 2 provides a transcription of any Notes... January with an average maximum temperature of 7°C ( 44°F ) the Open Practices badges from the meteorological! Revealed a percentage error of < 1 % 1900, the climate is warm and temperate January! Derived sum of the data presented here mark a significant and innovative to. Its derivatives must be accredited with the maximum during late autumn and winter seasons data recovery period with. Arrow keys to step through the images series for Ireland paper records, the climate is and! Example, an observer may note an exceptional rainfall event or a leak in the month... General, such changes were recorded in April 2017 at just 25.1.., please contact ciara Ryan ciara.ryan @ met.ie Lucan G.S eight long‐term stations have scanned. Progress the digitization of the impacts of climate change recovery period, please contact ciara Ryan ciara.ryan met.ie! Observations of temperature extremes Geography, Maynooth University, Ireland out internationally to rescue historical climate data by... Txt ) 4.466Mb database ( Table 1 ) database ( Table 1: 5km data... Historical records us measure Open data impact by taking our short survey by Köppen and Geiger observations eight!