It may not surprise readers that on average the British spend the equivalent of one working day each week on the weather – that is 4.02 hours checking the weather and 3.72 hours talking about it. Some say knowing the conditions affects their travel plans or what they wear but the largest number, 40% of those interviewed, said the weather affects their mood.
Those who earn a living by studying the climate are tapping into this British obsession in order to make old weather records available to researchers. The records cover two decades worth of significant data covering the period 1860-1880, but are handwritten and need transcribing. It would take years for scientists to do it themselves so they are asking the public to help get this data into digitized form so that researchers can see how the weather changed over this time in order to aid current climate research. The project Operation Weather Rescue was re-launched on Friday 8 March at the start of British Science Week, which is itself an attempt to get more members of the public involved in science. One of the keys to understanding extremes of weather like the Beast from the East and this February’s hot spell, is to compare them with major events recorded in past centuries.
