2,2- 1Royal Meteorological Institut of Belgium (RMIB), Climatology Department, Uccle, Belgium
- 2Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Department of Water and Climate, Ixelles, Belgium
The Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMIB) holds a vast collection of digitized climate archives dating back to 1833. However, most of these historical observations have been digitized but not transcribed in machine-readable format. Therefore, this wealth of information remains unusable for most climate applications. In this project, we propose to fill that gap by transcribing and quality-controlling in-situ measurements - including surface pressure, temperature, humidity, from the longest Belgian observation series of Brussels/Uccle. The project, funded by the C3S National Collaboration Programme, will be conducted in collaboration with the Free University of Brussels (VUB) which developed the MeteoSaver transcription tool for rescuing historical climate data. MeteoSaver is an open-source software based on AI/ML techniques and includes built-in quality control modules.
The project has two main objectives : (1) making new historical climate data available in the C3S Data Rescue repository for further use in the ECMWF reanalysis systems and for climate applications in general and (2) to enhance the flexibility and user-friendliness of the MeteoSaver tool and promote its use for climate data rescue, supported by new documentation and online training.
The main impact of the project lies in its contribution to a better understanding of past climate evolution. By incorporating newly recovered historical data into climate reanalysis, the project will help refine their accuracy and extend their temporal coverage further back in time. Targeted outreach will promote the rescued data to fuel climate research, empower national weather institutes in data rescue initiatives, and raise Belgian society’s awareness of the societal value of preserving historical climate information.
For EMS2026, the objectives and first steps in transcribing the data will be presented.
How to cite: Ingels, R., Brehon, M., Muheki, D., and Thiery, W.: Saving Climate Records In BElgium (SCRIBE) project – First steps in transcribing sub-daily climatic parameters starting from 1833 for Brussels/Uccle station with MeteoSaver, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-201, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-201, 2026.
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