Sources for exploring historical weather

The following are resources referred to in the presentation “Twas a Dark and Stormy Night: Connecting Weather and Personal Histories” by John D Reid for the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, 14 September 2024.

Reconstructed temperature records for the St. Lawrence Valley

Historical climate observations in Canada: 18th and 19th century daily temperature from the St. Lawrence Valley, Quebec, by Victoria Slonosky
https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/gdj3.11

NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology – St. Lawrence Valley, Quebec 18th and 19th Century Daily Temperature Data
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/paleo-search/study/15654

Fort Colonge Records 1824-1831
Liveright J. 1833. Fonds McCord Family, P001-838 “John Liveright’s Thermometrical Journals”. McCord Museum: Montreal, QC, Canada.

Ottawa Storm Film December 1942.
https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record?app=filvidandsou&IdNumber=27583&q=1942%20ottawa%20video&ecopy=27583

Canada
Meteorological Service of Canada
http://weather.gc.ca
Scroll to Past Weather and then Historic Data
https://climate.weather.gc.ca/historical_data/search_historic_data_e.html

Ottawa Weather Stats
https://ottawa.weatherstats.ca/

UK
British Meteorological Office.
http:.//www,metoffice.gov.uk
Scroll to National Meteorological Library & Archive
and find Daily Weather Report

Weather in History: 11,000BC to present
https://premium.weatherweb.net/weather-in-history-11000bc-to-present

USA
US Weather Bureau Historic Weather Records
https://www.weather.gov/
Click on Past Weather

Daily Global Synoptic Weather Maps: 1900 to 1971
https://libguides.library.noaa.gov/weather-climate/synoptic-map

Bonus Items

Northern Tornadoes Project
https://www.uwo.ca/ntp/index.html

The Michael Newark Digitized Tornado Archive
A collection of source and analysis materials related to tornadoes and other damaging wind events dating back to the late 1700s.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/ntp_mndta/

The Climate Trends and Variations Bulletin
A quarterly summary of how Canada’s climate has changed over the recent past and longer through maps of current and past departures from the mean.
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/climate-change/science-research-data/climate-trends-variability/trends-variations.html

Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Archives
See the publications
Climatological Bulletin (1967 – 1993)
The Canadian Weather Trivia Calendar (1988 – 2019)
Canada’s Top Ten Weather Stories (1996 to date)
Chinook (1978 – 1989)
https://cmosarchives.ca/index_publications.html

Copernicus ECMWF
X (Twitter) has news of the latest climate developments at @CopernicusECMWF

4 Replies to “Sources for exploring historical weather”

  1. *Really* looking forward to exploring the Weather in History web site! Michael and I, comfortably ensconced in our living room, enjoyed your presentation — as usual! (Light rainfall in Victoria, BC)

  2. That was a great talk, John – I really enjoyed it. And my husband listened too; he really liked your reference to the Dylan song!

  3. John, you gave a very interesting talk. Thank you so very much for these resources. I’ve used a few of them in my own research to help me verify events recorded in diaries.

  4. Thank you John, for that excellent review of weather past and predicted future. Quite enlightening. The song track you played didn’t come through well for me, do you have a link to it?

    Thanks again

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