1. Data Rescue Activities in the French NMS Météo-France Sylvie Jourdain, Direction de la Climatologie Météo-France

2. Data Rescue activities at Météo-France 1.Introduction 2.Data Rescue Programs at Météo-France 3.Meteorological archives in France 4.Main Problems 5.Perspectives 6.Conclusions

3. Introduction Data Rescue activities at Météo-France, managed by the Climatology department (DCLIM) in Toulouse, include Climate data preservation Digitization Quality control Primary component of the national archive : National Climatological Database (BDCLIM) French climate data and metadata are accessible through internet http://climatheque.meteo.fr http://climatheque.meteo.fr

4. Context  Historical Data Rescue program started in 1994  A lot of series back to 1960 in the Météo-France National Climatological Database (BDCLIM)  Huge amount of meteorological data in different archives everywhere in France  Necessity to determine priorities for digitizing First program : Monthly averages of daily temperature and monthly rainfall from 1850 to 1960 to build long time series to estimate long term trends over whole 20th century on the basis of homogenized time series

5. Data Rescue Program 1994-2003 National and departmental cimatological books from Météo-France archives and libraries Digitizing National Annals like Annuaires du Bureau Central Météorologique 1878-1920, http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/data_rescue_french.html Monthly rainfall in France (Raulin) 1715-1880 http://gallica.bnf.fr Annuaires de la société météorologique 1849-1899 Bulletins mensuels météorologiques de l’Association Scientifique de France 1871-1876 Departmental meteorological Annals Commission météorologiques départementales 1872-1950

6. Monthly Rainfall Stations Mean density in Météo-France Database BDCLIM

7. Data Rescue program since 2003 New objectives Daily Temperature, Rainfall and Sunshine Duration and sub-daily Pressure for France mainland and overseas in order to address extremes for the period 1850-1960 New means Great effort dedicated to locate relevant data sources : Guide on how to search and inventorize climate data in France  Team dedicated to Data rescue at the Climatology Department  National Action : Inventories of original written manuscript records archived in Météo-France weather stations

8. Daily data availability in BDCLIM in 2007 Daily Temperature Daily rainfall 40 stations in 1900 670 stations in1900 260 stations in 1950 2000 stations in 1950 2350 stations in 2005 4090 stations in 2005

9. Meteorological Archives in France  Météo-France : at least 100 different sites (weather stations, departmental weather centres (96), regional weather centres (7), libraries,  National archives http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/cac/fr  Departmental archives (96 sites in France)  Municipal archives  Universities, research laboratories  scientists association libraries  Ministry of Defense archives  BnF (the French National Library) with the french digital library Gallica maintained by BnF http://gallica.bnf.fr

10. Main Problems  Localization : Archives in many places at Météo-France in mainland and overseas  Inventories not always available at Météo-France and at public archives  Data collection : some archives are not accessible and documents borrowing is not always possible  Identification : specific observing location (index number) for data without metadata (annals with tables )  Preservation : the lack of human and financial resources does not allow to preserve and digitize all the data

11. Data rescue Objectives To Complete and lengthen the observatories series (daily and sub-daily data) : Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille Marseille Digitize paper records from the departmental weather centres meteorological : Daily temperature 250 stations period 1900-1950 Daily rainfall 1000 stations period 1880-1950 To digitize « Bulletin de l’observatoire de Paris » imaged files : Sub- daily Pressure for 25 stations 1857-1920 To digitize climatological annals 1878-1920 : daily rainfall for 800 stations

12. Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco Archives at Météo-france Monthly and daily climatological reports from old French Colonies archived at the Climatology department in Toulouse Inventories available Algeria : 74 stations 1928-1962 1060 microfiches and 212 microfilms Tunisia : 14 stations 1899-1961 1528 microfiches Marocco : 30 stations 1924-1962 462 microfiches 39 microfilms

13. Conclusions  Vast amount of paper records archived in the Météo- France centers and a lot of work has to be done to inventory and digitize the data  Despite the lack of resources, both human and financial, there is a willing to boost data rescue activities and valorize old meteorological information. The effort is growing inside Météo-France Météo-France wants to be more present at the international level joining current efforts promoted by WMO

14. Thank you for your attention