Calgary researcher examines old logbooks for climate clues

[icymist]

A researcher is taking a trip into the past in the hope that centuries of old sailing records will shed light on today's changing climate.

The meticulous records kept by old whaling captains and resolute fur traders are a trove of three centuries worth of information on everything from weather and wind to sea ice and animals, said Maribeth Murray.

"All of the ships that travelled had to keep logbooks and there were certain things that had to be recorded in log books, weather conditions being one of them," said Murray, director of the Arctic Institute of North America at the University of Calgary.

Three centuries of whaling, sealing and fur traders has left a prodigious trail of records in at least five countries.

Murray plans to visit archives in Canada, the United States, England, Norway and Denmark, so she can troll through hundreds of linear feet of documents.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/arctic-logbooks-research-climate-change-maribeth-murray-1.3339119

[Xipe Totec]

1. Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory

The Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, also known as Great Blue Hill Weather Observatory, Blue Hill Weather Observatory, or simply the Blue Hill Observatory, in Milton, Massachusetts is the foremost structure associated with the history of weather observations in the United States. Located atop Great Blue Hill at the junction of Interstate 93 and Route 138 about 10 miles (16 km) south of Boston, Massachusetts, it is home to the oldest continuous weather record in North America, and was the location of the earliest kite soundings of the atmosphere in North America in the 1890s, as well as the development of the radiosonde in the 1930s.

Founded by Abbott Lawrence Rotch in 1884, the observatory took a leading role in the newly emerging science of meteorology and was the scene of many of the first scientific measurements of upper atmosphere weather conditions, using kites to carry weather instruments aloft. Knowledge of wind velocities, air temperature and relative humidity at various levels came into use as vital elements in weather prediction due to techniques developed at this site. By 1895 the observatory was the source of weather forecasts of remarkable accuracy. On October 8, 1896, a record of 8740 feet (2,665 m) was achieved for a weather kite. During the Great New England Hurricane of 1938, the observatory measured the strongest wind gust ever directly measured and recorded in a hurricane at 186 mph (299 km/h).

The observatory remains active to this day, continuing to add to its data base of weather observations now more than one hundred years old, and stands as a monument to the science of meteorology in the United States.

The observatory offers astronomical science programs and is open to the public on weekends.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Hill_Meteorological_Observatory

Proud to say I lived within hiking distance of this treasure and visited it several times.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. *sigh* ... TRAWL through hundreds of ... nt

[Scuba]

3. How much evidence of climate change is necessary?