Irish Weather Rescue Project seeks to digitise millions of records

Young people aged 14 to 25 are being encouraged to play their part in producing a digital record of Irish weather history.

Met Éireann has partnered with an initiative called ‘Gaisce – The President’s Award’ in which it will engage with budding young citizen scientists.

Participants will be tasked with digitising millions of historical rainfall observations taken across Ireland during the late 19th to mid-20th Century.

Participants will be making a significant contribution to science by providing a more detailed picture of how rainfall patterns have changed over longer timescales, as well as providing more context around recent changes in rainfall variability due to human-caused climate change.

Gaisce – The President’s Award, which celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2025, is Ireland’s national youth award and is a personal development programme for young people.

Met Éireann Director, Eoin Moran commented, “This initiative represents climate science in action, and we eagerly anticipate the valuable contributions from participants, which will significantly enhance our understanding of Ireland’s climate.”

Gaisce CEO, Avril Ryan stated, “There are few chances for young people to participate in climate research, so we are very glad that Met Éireann is giving this opportunity for Gaisce participants to be a part of this important project to collect historical Meteorological data. To safeguard the future, we have to take a look at the past.”

Visit Irish Weather Rescue with Met Éireann – Gaisce for more details.