Help complete Australia’s longest daily weather record

The cover of one of the Adelaide Surveyor General's weather folios. Credit: National Archives of Australia - Adelaide. Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) are launching a new citizen science project to create Australia's longest daily weather record beginning in 1838. The researchers are looking for citizen science volunteers to help turn back the pages of history in order to discover more about Australia's pre-industrial climate. Volunteers will have the chance to digitise observations from the 1840s and 1850s which have been previously unused in climate change research.   -   - "Recently, we discovered 170-year-old weather journals taken at the Adelaide Surveyor General's Office that will complete an eight-year gap to create Australia's longest daily weather record," lead researcher Dr Joëlle Gergis said.  -   - "Historical weather records like these can give us an accurate picture of the range of climate extremes experienced in the past. This can help improve climate risk assessment needed for future climate change planning and adaptation.  -   - "The journals are some of the oldest weather records in the Southern Hemisphere."  -   - ANU citizen science project manager for Climate History Australia, Caitlin Howlett, says citizen scientists will help digitise over 150 handwritten pages of weather observations taken in Adelaide from 1 April 1843 until 1 December 1856.   -   - "This will fill the remaining gap in the record from 1848 to 1856," Ms Howlett said.