Ways to identify what year a recording is from?

[Ice Man]

I have finally begin the task of digitally-capturing a whole slew of old VHS tapes I had of TWC. Many hours, a few from major storm events but the rest, completely random. Most of the recordings are from the 90's and cover at least a 1-hour block. I can get the month/day/time from the LF obviously. But what about the year? TWC didn't always post copyright info along with their logo, and even then, I'm not sure if they kept the year up-to-date or just posted the year in which it was copyrighted. Are there any good tricks for this? Or should I just be looking to match "current conditions" with historical weather data? It would be even easier if I could compare surface radar images to what's being shown on my tapes, but AFAIK, such historical images aren't available anywhere.

[twcclassics]

If you have the date from the LF, getting the year is easy. I use the Windows calendar, starting with the year I think it's from. Then I just go forwards and/or backwards until the day of the week matches.

[Nick]

When I need to find the date of a piece of tape, it usually involves some combination of the calendar, radar and/or satellite images or surface maps.

Calendar only works if there is a day of the week and month/day somewhere on screen http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1996&country=1

National radar mosaic images (at 5 min intervals back to 1/1/95) http://gis.ncdc.noaa.gov/map/viewer/#app=cdo=cdo&cfg=radar&theme=radar&display=nexrad

Satellite images (back to the 70s) http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/gibbs/

Daily weather maps (back to the 1870s) http://www.lib.noaa.gov/collections/imgdocmaps/daily_weather_maps.html

www.wunderground.com has an archive of surface observations for most stations going back many years. I've used this to match temperatures (or other information) being shown on maps if there wasn't any of the above on screen or if the above didn't provide a perfect match.

Sometimes you have to just listen to what's being said if there isn't definitive visual clues as to the year or time of year. 

[Ice Man]

Good info, thanks for the tips. Hopefully will be uploading stuff soon.