Prevent Starvation - Nearly 2 million people could be saved from starvation every year if one tenth of one percent of subsistence farmers -- one farmer out of a thousand -- were to learn the real expected frequency of drought in their respective countries and alter their planting and storage practices accordingly. Before we can start information campaigns, we need to retrieve and digitize years of historic weather records for specific areas to determine local drought frequencies. Read more on this topic

Halt Disease Spread - Researchers can correlate the spread of past disease outbreaks with historic weather conditions. In areas of the world where outbreaks of malaria and other wind borne diseases still prevail, historical weather information is lacking. By collecting old weather records, we could predict the spread of diseases and save thousands of lives annually.

Accurate Flood Forecasts - Except for starvation, more people die from flooding than any other single cause. River flood computer models, largely based on historical information, provide ample warning in the U.S. where we have kept decades of precipitation and river stage information. Adding historic precipitation data to developing country databases would greatly improve the accuracy and timeliness of weather and flood warnings in those areas of the world.

Safer Bridges, Towers and Buildings - Architects and engineers design skyscrapers, bridges, cell phone, TV and air traffic control towers and other structures to withstand known environmental stressors. Historic weather data helps to anticipate extremes so that structures can be designed and built to withstand maximum winds, flooding, temperatures, and precipitation.

Understanding Climate Change - Is global warming occurring throughout the planet? If so, is it a natural cycle or is the warming due to humankind's effect on the environment? What we need is more data so the questions surrounding changes in the weather can be better understood. Historical weather data can increase our understanding of worldwide, as well as local area, weather conditions and trends.

Other Significant Benefits - Historical events and change in cultures many times can be explained by extreme weather events and climate change. A storm destroyed the Spanish Armada as it set about to attack England, a severe Russian winter defeated the Germans in WWII. Locating and rescuing these data can solve cultural mysteries.