IEDRO has 15,000 images of hourly precipitation on microfilm spanning from 1907 to the 1970’s.

Digitizing this data will help managers keep this vital shipping lane moving food and other goods.

Learn about IEDRO's data rescue project in Panama!

The Panama Canal relies on rainwater to function:
Too little rainfall means ships in the dry season must come through partially loaded, slowing the movement of goods. Too much water can damage the locks.

6. Digitize the data: Special computer programs turn the imaged records into usable data. Digitization is done by volunteers or staff of the original data owners.

7. Make data accessible: The data are sent to public archives such as NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

5. Image the data: IEDRO identifies collaborators for financial support and crafts a plan to image the fragile records and digitize their contents. Images are taken with scanning equipment or cameras.

3. Set up the site: IEDRO’s expert volunteers provide on-site support to set up equipment and provide data rescue training.

4. Inventory weather records: Record inventory identifies the types and dates of data. Records are compared with archived data to check which need to be rescued.

1. Identify the data: IEDRO seeks data records at risk of being lost that fill important environmental data needs.

2. Plan the project: Together, IEDRO and the data owner plan the scope and feasibility of the project, often finding even more records needing rescuing.

Successfully rescuing historic environmental data requires collaboration at each step. Data owner such as national weather services play a pivotal role in identifying historic data at risk.
IEDRO's data rescue process involves seven steps:

Other partnerships provide training and resources to organizations. Some are backed by funding, volunteers, agency employees, and students to rescue and digitize environmental data records.

Founded in 2005, IEDRO works with countries and organizations worldwide to locate, prioritize, image, digitize, and archive historical weather data.

IEDRO builds relationships to understand potential partnership opportunities. Some partnerships are exploratory and open new doors.

Dr. Restrepo is the NOAA Hydrologist-in-Charge of the North Central River Forecast Center, responsible for the forecasting of river flows from drought to floods at over 400 sites in 9 states of the United States. Before that, he served as the Senior Scientist at the National Weather Service.

Meet the Team! Dr. Pedro Restrepo, Ph.D.
Dr. Restrepo is a consultant in water resources and hydrologic river modeling including forecasts, hydropower optimization, water supply, flood control, multi-purpose reservoir operations, and reservoir operations planning.

Most of these records are now part of an open and unrestricted NOAA data base enabling the records to be distributed to scientists, educators and even farmers.

In 2005, Dr. Crouthamel retired and formed IEDRO to continue to assist NOAA. Since that time, he and 23 volunteers have located, imaged, and digitized millions of historic hydrometeorological observations from 18 developing countries.

NOAA, with cooperating federal agencies, provided digital cameras, computers, copy stands and software to six African countries: Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, and Zambia to locate, image, and digitize historic hydrometeorological data at risk of disappearing forever.

In 2000, Dr. Sharon E. Nicholson, Ph.D. worked with NOAA’s National Weather Service’s International Activities Office (IAO) to form the Climate Data Modernization Program (CDMP) to locate and rescue historic climate data in Africa.

covering the last120 years was available at the Bangladeshi National Meteorological Service. Unfortunately, the data was all on paper and unavailable to the farmer hundreds of miles away. Dr. Crouthamel realized that with the assistance of NOAA, he could help keep similar tragedies from occurring.

Tragically, the farmer lost his two daughters to starvation during a drought. If he had known the frequency of drought over the last 100 years, he could have adjusted his planting schedule or saved extra crops- saving his kids from starvation. What made the situation sadder was the fact the data...

After witnessing a horrible situation, IEDRO’s founder, Dr. Rick Crouthamel, D.Sc. realized a lack of access to weather data is a life-or-death situation. He saw a farming family in Bangladesh starve because they did not know when to expect droughts.

Meet The Team! Executive Director & Founder Dr. Richard Crouthamel, D.SC. After 32 years with the National Weather Service, Dr. Crouthamel, D.Sc, retired in 2004. Since then, he has concentrated on locating and rescuing worldwide historic weather observations and providing those data to NOAA.

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Meteorological and Hydrologic Services (NMHS) organizations of developing countries to carry out this mission.
It is joined in its efforts by a global set of talented and committed collaborating organizations and partners.

We do this so information about our past can help today’s computer models protect the lives of those most at risk before these historical records are lost forever through neglect and disaster.
IEDRO works closely with the World Meteorological Organization...

IEDRO is a nonprofit organization that brings training, tools, and equipment to collaborations worldwide to rescue at-risk historical environmental data and save lives in this changing world.

The International Environmental Data Rescue Organization (IEDRO) works to: locate, image, digitize, and share historical environmental data to improve the accuracy of weather prediction models. IEDRO strives to make all rescued data freely and openly available for scientists, researchers, and more.

Since 2005, the International Environmental Data Rescue Organization (IEDRO) has been working to save data and save lives. Follow along to learn more!

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