Data Analysis

Working with and Analyze Archived Local Weather

A major assignment in this course introduces us to weather sites which contain tons of data about every kind of weather phenomena. I will be focusing on the Midwest for my data analysis.

Since 1985 four of the top 10 warmest years have been since 2000. The time in-between these recently warm years is far closer than the time between any of the other years. This is telling that the temperature is increasing at an accelerating pace. To make a more informed decision as to whether or not one believes in global warming they could look at temperature trends for the entire year instead of focusing on one month. A yearly trend would be much more beneficial since it doesn’t narrow its focus so much. Since 1985, though, the temperature has been increasing at a rate which is much faster than it is for the month of March.

Figure 1. Line graph showing the monthly average temperature for Milwaukee, WI.

Figure 2. Line graph showing the monthly average temperature for Madison, WI.

Temperatures for Milwaukee and Madison follow he expected trend for when the hottest (July) and coolest (January) months are in the Northern Hemisphere. The graphs are almost a parabolic shape since there are no sudden changes in temps from month to month.  The precipitation graphs, however, are a bit more interesting. The highest amount of precipitation for Milwaukee occurs in April and July whereas the highest month for Madison is August. This could be partly due to Milwaukee’s location on the shore of Lake Michigan. The lowest amount of precipitation happens in February for Milwaukee and in January and February for Madison. A reason for this may be since the temperature is so cold there is a slim chance for precipitation to happen.

Figure 3. Line graph showing the monthly average precipitation for Milwaukee, WI.

Figure 4. Line graph showing the monthly average precipitation for Madison, WI.

  

Data retrieved from http://www.cityrating.com/weather-history/#.U1gQ2vldV8E, http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Eau+Claire&state=WI&site=MPX&textField1=44.8212&textField2=-91.4923

Figure 5. Climograph displaying average temperature and precipitation for Eau Claire, WI.  The precipitation and temperature in Eau Claire follow the same trend throughout the year with a few exceptions in February and July where precipitation decreased as the temp increased. 

Figure 6. Climograph displaying average temperature and precipitation for Madison, WI.  The precipitation and temperature in Madison increase and decreases together throughout the year. Average temp creates a nice curve whereas precipitation changes sporadically and not at a constant rate.

Figure 7. The climograph for Milwaukee, WI is far more interesting than the graphs for Madison and Eau Claire. Precipitation seems to follow no pattern at all and is extremely sporadic throughout the year with drastic changes happening month to month compared to temperature which follows the same trend as the other cities.  

Figure 8. This graph for Minneapolis, MN follows an expected pattern but with a dip in precipitation during July which seems to be a common trend as seen in the graphs below. This graph shows that weather is more stable throughout the year than in other locations like Milwaukee, WI.

Figure 9. Superior, WI experiences a similar pattern as Eau Claire which is odd to me because of how Superior is located next to Lake Superior and Eau Claire is more central to the state. 

Figure 10. Wausau, WI has a similar graph as Minneapolis which makes sense because of how spread out both cities are and how far away they are from major bodies of water.

Comparing data like precipitation and temperature over multiple areas allows you to discover regional patterns and if there are any cities which don't fit with the national average. From this you can delve further to see why these cities might differ and to what extent humans have had on these variances. Variables responsible for these variances are most likely distance from bodies of water, area of the city, and natural barriers like hills or valleys.

Data collected for climographs comes from http://www.worldclimate.com recorded from 1931-1995

Temperatures for the months of January, February, March, and April in 2013 are displayed on the graph below. There aren’t many patterns in the temperatures but in April the temperatures start to level out and increase at the end of the month. All data was gathered from the weather station atop Phillip’s Science Hall at UWEC.

 

 

When looking at the early months of the year it is hard to see any kind of pattern between precipitation and temperatures. The only real pattern is that as temps increase so too does the amount of precipitation; but that trend is far too general to be seen at the scale presented below in the climograph since every day of each month has data associated with it. This trend would be much easier to tell if only the four months were shown with average precipitation and temp being relayed through the climograph. 

Dominant wind from January – April is shown below in the pie graphs. The dominant wind in January is from the WNW which makes sense that would bring down cool temps from Canada. February is from the ESE which goes against what would be expected since wind from that direction usually brings warmer temps.  March, the NW winds keep the month cool but the ESE winds are trying to make it warmer. In April ESE and W winds share he dominance in the month telling that the temps are starting to warm up as the ear rolls on. Winds and precipitation don’t correlate well together besides for Februay when there was a considerable increase from January in precipitation. With primarily ESE winds it makes sense that precipitation values would increase for this month, however, I am using wind data that is generalized for the whole month and not specific to individual days. 

Over the course of the first four months of the year there are a few patterns which stand out; as monthly temperatures increase so too does the amount of precipitation per month, winds (generally) from the SE correlate with higher amounts of precipitation for the month. The main anomaly which stands out is that for the month of February there is much more precipitation than what the trend of the four months says there should be. This could most likely be attributed to the amount of ESE winds but since the temperature wasn’t much warmer than January, following the trend, it is odd that this increase would happen just because of the wind.

All data in the above section is from the weather station atop Phillip’s Science Hall at UWEC.