Data rescue: discovery and recovery of historic climate observations

On the fortieth anniversary of the establishment of the Royal Meteorological Society's History Special Interest Group, a symposium was held on 11 October 2023 to discuss the data rescue and preservation activities that are currently underway in the United Kingdom. The Met Office's National Meteorological Library and Archive is a unique resource and should be the first port of call for anyone engaged in the analysis of historic climate data. The manager of the archive, Catherine Ross, gave the first presentation of the meeting. The collection is unique and Catherine described the importance of preserving the original sources of observations and metadata for both current and future researchers. The main theme of Catherine's talk was the value of metadata for assessing the reliability of meteorological observations. A vivid example was presented using the barogram sheets recorded onboard the Royal Navy vessel HMS Prince of Wales, which showed erratic behaviour on 24 May 1941. Contextual information indicated the reason for the unusual trace: the ship was engaging fire at the time with the German battleship Bismarck.