Dr Carla Mateus, Assistant Professor in the Geography Department at Maynooth University, is giving a public lecture 'Historical early meteorological observations from Ireland in the archives of the Royal Irish Academy (1783 – 1854)' at the Royal Irish Academy from 13:00 - 14:00 on the 22nd of May during National Biodiversity Week.
Historical meteorological observations are crucial to better assess past climate variability and trends and the frequency, intensity, duration, and distribution of extreme weather events, and to put the current climate change into historical context. The historical meteorological observations preserved in the archives of the Royal Irish Academy are of cultural and scientific importance. This lecture will highlight the rich heritage of historical early meteorological observations from Ireland in the archives of the Royal Irish Academy. Specifically, this lecture will explain the role of the Royal Irish Academy in providing guidelines to take meteorological observations across the island of Ireland, as well as other meteorological registers in the archives, by stating the locations, period covered, types of climate elements and observations taken, data sources, metadata on instrumentation and observations practices. The meteorological observations have been digitised from the original paper data sources and will be available as open-access in the Digital Repository of Ireland and described in a peer-reviewed publication.
Further details of this lecture, including a link to book a free ticket, are available here: https://www.ria.ie/events/historical-early-meteorological-observations-from-ireland-in-the-archives-of-the-royal-irish-academy-1783-1854/
Additionally, Dr Carla Mateus is collaborating with the Royal Irish Academy in curating an exposition and Library collection tour: ‘Historical meteorological observations in the archives of the Royal Irish Academy' on the 16th and 20th of May from 13:10 - 13:30. Further details of this exposition, including a link to book a free ticket, are available here: https://www.ria.ie/events/library-collection-tour-historical-meteorological-observations-in-the-archives-of-the-royal-irish-academy/