IPDC completes digitisation of historic weather archives for St. Maarten

The International Panel on Deltas and Coastal Areas, IPDC, said historic meteorological archives from Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten have been digitised through a project involving their national meteorological services and the Netherlands. The records were converted into digital images and, to a large extent, machine-readable formats, according to the IPDC.

The Government of Curaçao and the Meteorological Department Curaçao made the former Netherlands Antilles meteorological archive available for the work. Following legal review and intellectual property agreements, about 70,000 pages were made available for digitisation, the IPDC said. Some records date to 1880.

The material has been shared with Aruba, St. Maarten and the Caribbean Netherlands islands of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba. The IPDC said the larger historical dataset can support climate scenarios for 2050 to 2100 and strengthen early warning systems across the islands.