Citizen scientists called on to fill the gap in Australia's longest daily weather record

The weathered cover of an Adelaide weather diary which covers from 1843 to 1847
8 September 2020

Citizen scientists from around the world are being asked to help complete Australia's longest daily weather record.

A 170-year-old diary recently unearthed from the National Archives will fill a key gap in Adelaide's weather history.

The uncovered weather diary was kept by South Australia's third surveyor-general, Edward Charles Frome, and includes 150 handwritten pages of weather observations from April 1, 1843, to December 1, 1856.

This time period is crucial because in June, climate scientist Dr Joelle Gergis and her team from the Australian National University released a paper outlining how they had created the longest daily weather record for Australia, dating back to 1838.

However, there was an eight-year gap in that record — from 1848 to 1856 — that this citizen science project hopes to fill.

Read the full article on the ABC News website, featuring Dr Joelle Gergis

Updated:  9 September 2020/Responsible Officer:  College of Science/Page Contact:  https://iceds.anu.edu.au/contact