Sample Search

Let's say you wanted to find information about rainfall and barometric pressure from cities in various parts of the United States in the 1920s.

On Chart 1, look in the Place column.  While it is possible that you may find the data in the sources listed under Global  or North America, the best place to start is United States.

The United States publications are listed by date, so look in the Time Period column.  Here is a sample from Chart 1.
 

#	Title	Call Number	Place	Time Period	Intervals	Format
U1	Daily Weather Map	A29.18/31:	United States	1916-1925	Daily	Paper
U2	Cooperative Summary of the Day	C55.54:281/2-4	United States	earliest to 1997	Daily	CD-ROM with no software
U3	Climatological Data: National Summary	C55.214:	United States	1975-1980	Various	Paper (Haggard 2)

It appears that U1 and U2 are the best bets.  A look at Chart 2 tells us that rainfall is R in the Precipitation column.  Soil Temperature is O in the Temperature column.

Now look at this excerpt from Chart 2: Data.

#	Air	Moisture	Ocean	Precip.	Pressure	Temp.	Weather	Misc.
U1	A S	H		P		A
U2	A	E		R S		A O

It appears that U2 might have the information you want.  If that doesn't work, try looking in some of the records under North America or Global.

Ask at the Reference &  Information Service Desk  if you need help.

Rob Lopresti
April 2001

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