The weather diaries of the Kirch family: Leipzig, Guben, and Berlin (1677–1774)

Abstract

Abstract. Astronomer and calendar maker Gottfried Kirch was a keen weather observer and made weather notes in his diary starting in 1677 in Leipzig. In parallel, his second wife Maria Margaretha Winkelmann started a weather diary in 1700 in Berlin. The diaries also contain instrumental measurements of temperature and later pressure. After the death of Gottfried in 1710 and Maria Margaretha in 1720, observations were continued by their son Christfried and then for another 44 years by their daughter Christine. The last measurements date to 1774. Together, the diaries span almost a century of weather observations. The instrumental measurements constitute the oldest part of Germany's longest temperature series, which was however only available as monthly means up to now. Here we publish the imaged diaries, together amounting to 10 445 images. Further, we present the digitized instrumental series, which will serve as the starting point for a new, daily Berlin series. By comparing the series to neighbouring records, we show that the pressure data are reliable in a quantitative sense, whereas this is true for the temperature data only in a qualitative sense as the temperature scale was not converted.