Abstract
This paper provides early instrumental data recovered for 20 countries of Latin-America and the Caribbean (Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, British Guiana, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, France (Martinique and Guadalupe), Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, El Salvador and Suriname) during the 18th and 19th centuries. The main meteorological variables retrieved were air temperature, atmospheric pressure, and precipitation, but other variables, such as humidity, wind direction, and state of the sky were retrieved when possible. In total, more than 300,000 early instrumental data were rescued (96% with daily resolution). Especial effort was made to document all the available metadata in order to allow further post-processing. The compilation is far from being exhaustive, but the dataset will contribute to a better understanding of climate variability in the region, and to enlarging the period of overlap between instrumental data and natural/documentary proxies.
Highlights
Background & SummaryThe instrumental observation of the atmosphere started at the end of the first half of the 17th century with the invention of the first instruments, such as the thermometer by Galileo
Several short-lived networks in Europe functioned during the 18th century under the auspices of individuals (e.g., James Jurin from 1724 to 1735) or institutions[2]
Some interesting meteorological observations were performed from the late 17th to the early 19th centuries in Caribbean and central South American countries, including the earliest pressure observations associated with tropical cyclones[4], eight years of continuous records in Rio de Janeiro[5,6], the possibly earliest continuous observations above 4,000 masl[7], and the 1808/1809 observations by Francisco José de Caldas and José Hipólito Unanue in Bogotá and Lima, respectively, which were used to date exactly the unknown eruption of 18098
Summary
The instrumental observation of the atmosphere started at the end of the first half of the 17th century with the invention of the first instruments, such as the thermometer by Galileo. Some interesting meteorological observations were performed from the late 17th to the early 19th centuries in Caribbean and central South American countries, including the earliest pressure observations associated with tropical cyclones[4], eight years of continuous records in Rio de Janeiro[5,6], the possibly earliest continuous observations above 4,000 masl[7], and the 1808/1809 observations by Francisco José de Caldas and José Hipólito Unanue in Bogotá and Lima, respectively, which were used to date exactly the unknown eruption of 18098. While we acknowledge that this is not the final word regarding the full extent of data recovery in this area, it is a significant step towards improving the availability of the region's early instrumental records
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