Abstract:
The Russian Empire climate data resides in 4 books, 'Memoire Sur La Temperature
Moyenne De Plusieurs Points De L'Empire De Russie' (C/db K96); 'Observations
Meteorologiques et Magnetiques Faites Dans L'Empire De Russie' (C/db K96m);
'Memoires De L'Academie Imperiale Des Sciences De Saint-Petersbourg' (C/db
K96o); and 'Resumes Des Observations Meteorologiques Faites Dans L'Etendue De
L'Empire
... De Russie' (C/db K96r), all written in French. The data contained in
these books are hourly surface observations, daily, monthly, seasonal, and
annual surface climatic data, and some geomagnetic data for selected cities in
the Russian Empire from 1813 to 1836.
Parameters included in the hourly observations are pressure, air temperature,
cloudiness, precipitation, winds, vapor pressure, and the geomagnetic variables
of inclination, azimuth, absolute declination, and magnetic declination. The
only daily variable is mean temperature. It is calculated for each month and
averaged over the period.
Monthly parameters for each month are the following: mean pressure,
temperature, humidity, and winds; mean maximum and minimum pressure and
temperature; absolute maximum and minimum pressure and temperature; number of
days of fog, rain, snow, frost, thunderstorms, hail, clear skies, partly cloudy
skies, and cloudy skies; precipitation totals; and wind frequency. Monthly
parameters averaged over the period are mean temperature, mean maximum and
minimum temperature, and wind frequency. Wind frequency and mean temperature
are averaged seasonally and annually.
Additional variables that can be found in these data are hottest and coldest
days of each year, number of days that a river or lake is ice-covered,
earliest and latest frost, first snowfall, and duration of the winter.
The Transcaucasia rainfall data resides in 1 book, 'Precipitation in
Transcaucasia' (C/db K76) written in Russian, English notes. The data contained
in this book are monthly, seasonal, and annual precipitation data for
Transcaucasia in Russia from 1848 to 1918. Precipitation parameters averaged
over the period and for each individual month included in these data are the
following: absolute maximum in 24 hours for a month; monthly totals; and
monthly number of days with hail, snow and precipitation of a certain
intensity. Precipitation variables averaged only for the period 1848 to 1918
are mean monthly and seasonal precipitation, monthly probability of
precipitation, and mean monthly number of showers.
These books are part of the foreign meteorological data collection held by the
NOAA Central Library in Washington, DC. Information in this collection dates
back to the 18th century for daily, monthly, seasonal, and annual tabular
summaries, and the 19th century for weather maps. These data are the result
of foreign exchange agreements, but the collection has not been updated since
1983. 
