Call for isolated Britons to help digitise historical rainfall data

Climate change scientists planning to transcribe paper records from 1820s to 1950s

Weather is a perennial British obsession, with some of the country's rainfall and temperature records going back centuries. Some of this data has been invaluable in drawing up detailed pictures of the British climate, which have been influential in computer models used to forecast climate change.

But some of it is still effectively unusable because it is marooned in reams of old-fashioned paper records. Now scientists at the University of Reading are planning to rescue these obscure rain gauge records, using citizen scientists to do the work. They hope that hundreds of people currently stuck indoors with little else to do will be inspired to join up to help digitise rainfall data for use by meteorologists and climate experts.