Data Analysis/Lab Assignments

Lab #1 - Weather Data

This is a map/diagram that I made to show the current weather fronts affecting weather in the U.S. I labeled the cold and stationary fronts that were currently over the continent, as well as the areas of warm and cold area associated with them. This map explains why most of the country is seeing dry conditions today. There is a massive high pressure system sitting over most of the central and eastern parts of the country. The only precipitation to note was occurring along the cold front along the gulf coast, and a little bit along the stationary front in Colorado as well. 

This is a diagram I made that shows the different air masses that affect the weather in the U.S. For example, today the air from the "Continental Polar" mass has pushed way down into the center of the country, making for dry, cold conditions in many places. Out west, you have the "Maritime Tropical" and "Maritime Polar" masses sort of sliding along each other, creating a little bit of precipitation, but nothing huge at the moment.

This is a satellite image I acquired while doing this lab. Water vapor appears white, and you can tell which areas are seeing precipitation today based on the highest concentrations of vapor. The central east coast saw some action today, as well as the area around the Kansas/Colorado border. As seen on this image, those areas had more moisture in the atmosphere than anywhere else.

This is a barometric pressure graph taken from the UW-Eau Claire campus weather station. Using these graphs, one can determine if pressure is rising or falling, and use that knowledge to make predictions about the weather. For example, towards the right of this graph the pressure is rising. That likely means that during that period we saw clearing skies, drying air, and falling temperatures since it is winter. One might predict that means we would see similar conditions tomorrow as well if that trend continues.

Lab #6 - Working With Archived Weather Data

These are average temperature graphs I created comparing Madison and Milwaukee, WI. The data used is from cityrating.com/weatherhistory. Overall, these temperature trends are pretty much the same with their coldest and warmest months being the same. Milwaukee is slightly warmer, on average, during most months.

These are average precipitation graphs I created comparing Madison and Milwaukee once again. This data is also from cityrating. Overall, these trends are also somewhat similar. They both see the most precipitation in August, and the least in February. Milwaukee has a slightly wetter spring, and a slightly drier summer. Both winters are relatively dry.

Below are some climographs I created using data from worldclimate.com. They have varying dates of data collection, so I have specified those for each.

Temperature data from 1961-1990. Precipitation data from 1949-1995.

Temperature data from 1961-1990. Precipitation data from 1950-1995.

Temperature data from 1961-1990. Precipitation data from 1948-1995.

Temperature data from 1869-1990. Precipitation data from 1855-1990.

Temperature data from 1871-1980. Precipitation data from 1948-1954.

Temperature data from 1961-1990. Precipitation data from 1931-1995.

Temperature data from 1961-1990. Precipitation data from 1941-1995.

The following questions were associated with the making of these graphs...

Why is it useful to compare your data to more than one of these locations?

Comparing your data to a few of these different locations is useful because it gives you a somewhat general idea of what other places in the surrounding area are like. It allows you to see how your data stacks up compared to what it generally should look like. For the most part, all of these locations have somewhat similar data, so for example, if your data were to be wildly different in some way when compared to these other cities, it could be a red flag that something is wrong. 

What variables may influence differences between those locations and our location?

There are always a lot of variables to consider when talking about different locations. The biggest one that I can think of, based on these locations, would be proximity to a large body of water. The two cities of Milwaukee and Superior are the ones that varied the most when compared to Eau Claire data. These cities are both located on big lakes that impact their climate by keeping things a bit more temperate throughout the year. The cities that are more land locked compare more closely to us.

How might these data vary from your data regarding your data collection techniques?

The main thing that probably would make these data sets vary is how much the data available varied in itself. For each city, data was available only from certain time periods which were sometimes wildly different from the others. For example, precipitation data for Madison went all the way back to 1855, while Milwaukee’s was only available from 1948-54. This difference in amount of data actually being averaged could cause the results to be quite different than if they were all using the same amount of data. As for our own collection, we took a large number of data points at relatively the same time, but they were from different exact points within the overall UWEC area. The data available for these other cities was taken from one point, usually at an airport, over a long period of time.

The next set of graphs and charts were made using data taken from the weather station on top of Phillips Hall at UWEC.

This is simply a line graph comparing the average, highest, and lowest recorded temperatures so far in 2014. The biggest trend that stands out to me is between March and April. The highest and lowest recorded temperatures for those months are becoming much closer together as we go through the spring and towards summer. Those numbers were relatively the same back in January and February, but the gap has been closing quickly.

This is a simple bar graph showing the amount of precipitation (rain) that was recorded by month so far in 2014. Note that the temperatures directly relate to the precipitation data. There has been a great increase in rain precipitation here in April, and that makes perfect sense when you consider the average temperature by month. Prior to April, our average temperature was at or below 32 degrees, which means that almost everything that we saw was in the form of snow or ice. But now in April, with an average temperature of around 40 degrees, it has been too warm for snow and everything has been rain.

The following pie charts show the number of days the wind was prevailing from a given direction, as per data again from the Phillips Hall weather station. Not all days have weather data available, so the number of days reported may differ from the number of days in each month.

Upon reviewing these charts, I am able to make the following observations...We tend to see a dominant wind from the west overall. This does make perfect sense, as that is usually the direction of the jet stream in our area, and precipitation usually moves from west to east. Precipitation in our area tends to be associated with winds from a more southerly direction because that is when we have the most moisture in the area. When wind are more from the north, they are coming from a very dry air mass.

As a final "sum-up" of this lab assignment, I would like to compare and contrast the climographs and charts I have created here to analyze how the weather we have seen so far in 2014 stacks up against what is considered normal. 

Comparing the data from the graphs and charts I constructed using Phillips Hall data to the climograph for our area, we can make some interesting observations about how 2014 has gone so far compared to “normal”. We started off fairly average an boring, but recently have been dealing with some abnormally cold and dry conditions.

I will start with January. January usually has an average temperature of around 10 degrees. The data from Phillips Hall shows that we were right around that mark. Prevailing winds were sort of a mixed bag, with 5 days from the west, 4 from the east, and 3 each from the west-northwest and southeast. Based on this information, I would conclude that January was actually fairly average.

Looking at February, the average temperature based on the climograph is around 15-17 degrees or so. The Phillips hall data again suggests that we were right around that mark. Winds in February definitely were dominated from the west, and there were very few days from the south. This would make sense, considering it was a cold and fairly dry month. Once again, this would lead me to call February fairly average.

Going on to March, the climograph shows an average temperature of about 30 degrees. The Phillips hall data shows that we were slightly below that mark. March was again pretty dry with a prevailing west-northwest wind pattern. There were a few days with a southern dominance which would explain the small increase in temperature and precipitation. I would call March fairly average, although temperature-wise you could probably say we were below the average.

Finally, I will talk about where we are today in April. The climograph shows an average temperature of about 45 degrees. The Phillips hall data shows that we have been much cooler than that, at around 40 degrees on average. We did have an abnormally high max. temperature this month, of around 70 degrees. The climograph also shows an average of about 3 inches of precipitation in April. Phillips hall data shows that we have only seen about half of that, although the past couple of days have made up for almost all of it. Winds have been kind of mixed, with 5 days from the west, 4 from the east, and 3 each from the southeast and west-northwest. But once again, the norths and wests make up that majority, which means we were dealing with cold, dry air masses. That explains why April has been colder and drier than normal.