Météo-France West Indian Ocean data rescue

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) launched the Indian Ocean Data Rescue Initiative (INDARE) in order to accelerate recovering of climate records and to improve the quality of climate datasets from Indian Ocean area.In 2017, following the request from WMO, Météo-France developed a Data Rescue implementation plan for the recovery of climate records from Madagascar, involving both meteorological service of  Madagascar(DGM) and Météo-France. A first work of searching and analysing led to recovering, sorting and cataloguing the digital publications available on line, containing historical meteorological observations for Madagascar, Mayotte and Comores over the period  1889-1960.Catalogue of publications  available   in the file: METFR_Publications_meteo_obs_Madagascar.pdf In 2017, in a framework of a partnership between Météo-France and the French National Archives (Archives nationales), 33 boxes of climate hard-copy archives related to West Indian Ocean over the period 1864-1961, originating from the historical Collection of the French meteorological services, have been made available to Météo-France. Météo-France quickly started several tasks like preserving, restoring, inventorying and then imaging of monthly reports of 26 meteorological stations over the period 1947-1961. Master image inventory in the file: Master_Image_Inventory_FRAN_Madagascar_dependencies_1864-1962_2023-01-23.xls 
Objectives of the project : inventorying of hardcopy archives, imaging  of  selection of documents (pre-1918 records  and monthly climate reports 1947-1961),  sharing ressources with other meteorological servicesand with international projects. Digitisation of  French data (Le Réunion, Mayotte, Europa, Tromelin).  Inventorying continues but slowly
Digitisation of data in 2018: Two daily precipitation series  in La  Réunion  1900-1931  
Digitisation of data in 2020:
- Saint-Denis (La Réunion) 1883-1885 daily temperature and precipitation , subdaily pressure,  temperature, humidity and wind 
-Dzaoudzi (Mayotte) 1947-1948 daily temperature and precipitation , subdaily pressure,  temperature, humidity and wind
- La Possession (La Réunion) 1897-1901 daily temperature and precipitation, subdaily pressure, temperature, humidity and wind
-Saint-Pierre (La Réunion) 1900-1909 monthly temperature and precipitation
-Saint-denis (La Réunion) 1883-1885 daily temperature and precipitation, subdaily pressure, temperature, humidity and wind
Digitisation in 2021;
-Le Port (Docteur Flament ) 02/1897-02/1901 subdaily temperature ,pressure, humidity and wind. Daily temperature and rainfall

- Records imaged in 2021-2022 : Boxes 19820606/13 and 19820606/15. Madagascar and Mayotte Period 1864-1918

Catalogues of inventoried archives and selected images are available on http://archives-climat.fr. Catalogues are updated every morning