Throughout the semester we did a series of assignments on surface maps, history of temperature and precipitation numbers for multiple cities, climographs for different cities in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and hurricane path data for both the year 2000, and all time. The data we gathered from these assignments helped us to better understand how to produce graphs and maps to make it easy to look at trends in the data.
This is one of two wind surface maps for the entire United States on March 9, 2013. The map shows there are high northwest wind speeds over the Eau Claire area and much of Minnesota. As you move south into southern Wisconsin and Illinois you see the wind shift from northwest to simply west which is the dominant wind direction for our area, and for much of the United States.
This is the second of two wind surface maps for the United States except this one was recorded on March 10, 2013 at 6:15 PM. This map shows much calmer winds in our area and this time instead of coming from the northwest they have switched directions and are coming out of the south. This would most likely bring warmer temperatures to our area compared to the northwest winds. You can see where a warm front has formed from eastern Texas all the way up to northern Minnesota.
This is a graph showing the temperature averages in the month of March from the present all the way back to 1895 for the entire United States. Generally we see the normal temperature should be at a little under 42 degrees F. Since 1990 we have seen a trend of warming in average temperatures with our highest average temperature coming last year at over 50 degrees F. This year compared to last year are vastly different. This year our average temperature is just below normal coming in at about 41 degrees F. This is almost a 10 degree difference from last years average.
The above graph shows the average amount of precipitation in the US from 1895 to the present in the month of March. Between the mid 1970's and the late 1990's we saw a trend of increased precipitation with many years in that frame coming in at well above the average precipitation amount. The average precipitation amount for the month of March in the US is 2.4 inches. Last years precipitation amount was slightly above average at about 2.75 inches, while this year we were the most below average since the mid 1960's at roughly 1.75 inches.
This is a graph of average rainfall for the month of March in Wisconsin from the years 1895 to the present. There are really no trends that can be made out from this graph other then the fact that from year to year, changes in amounts of precipitation are becoming more drastic. Between the years of 1977 and 1978 the change in precipitation went from over 4 inches in 1977 to under a half inch in 1978. The average precipitation for the month of March in Wisconsin is 1.8 inches and this year we came in at just slightly above that. There was very little change between this year and last year in the amount of precipitation that we recieved. Last year we recieved slightly more then two inches while this year we were just slightly under two inches.
This graph shows the average temperature for each month of the year in 2012 in the city of Madison, WI. The average temperature throughout the year was only 45.2 degrees F. The lowest average temperature occurred in January and it was 16.0 degrees F. The month with the highest average temperature was July at 71.0 degrees F.
This chart shows the amount of
precipitation that occurred in each month of 2012 in Madison, WI. The precipitation data varies from that of
the temperature chart because it doesn’t make a perfect arc shape. Over the course of the year Madison received
30.9 inches of precipitation. The month
that recorded the greatest amount of precipitation was August at exactly 4
inches. The months that received the
least amount of precipitation was January and February when both recorded only
1.1 inches of precipitation.
This graph shows the average temperature
for each month in the year 2012 for Milwuakee, WI.
The average temperature throughout the year was 46.1 degrees F, which is
surprisingly higher then the average temperature of Madison. The month that recorded the highest average
temperature was July at 70.9 degrees F.
The month that recorded the lowest average temperature was January at
18.9 degrees F.
The average precipitation for each month
in the year 2012 for Milwaukee, WI is stated in this chart. Milwaukee received a total of 32.9 inches in
the entire year. The months that
received the greatest amount of precipitation were July and August which both
received 3.5 inches of precipitation.
February recorded the lowest amount of precipitation in the year 2012
with only 1.5 inches of precipitation.
These are climographs from Eau Claire, La Crosse, Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Superior, and Wausau. The climographs compare average temperature and precipitation by each month. The data is a little dated, with most of it coming from the time period of 1961-1995. The data is useful though in identifying trends in climate throughout the year in different geographical locations It is important to compare our data with data gathered from different areas of Wisconsin and Minnesota because the geographical conditions differ in each are differ greatly. The main variable in each of these locations is the geographic location of the data surveyor. I tried to gather each data series from the airport in each of these locations to lower the variation in data.
Mainly the geographic variables that would have the most effect on the data would be the Great Lakes, specifically Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. Other bodies of water such as the Chippewa River in Eau Claire and the Mississippi River in La Crosse and Minneapolis could also have some effect on the data gathered at these locations. Then there are the cities such as Wausau and Madison that are inland cities that are less affected by large bodies of water. This data gathered from higher quality weather reading devices would cause the data to vary somewhat from the data we gathered with hand-held data gathering tools. The data collected in these locations as well are always stationary while the data we collected was from a human moving about an area which could also cause slight variations in the data.
The above four charts show the mean, high, and low temperature for the months of January through April of this year. The data was gathered from the archive of weather information on the UW-Eau Claire campus. You can see the later in the year it gets the farther apart each line gets from each other. In January the mean, max, and min temperature were much closer together then the months of March and April. Also the lines seem to flatten out more in March and April which also correlates with more stable weather conditions.
The above four bar gaphs are the daily precipitation numbers from the months of January through April of this year. This data was also gathered from the weather data archive on the UW-Eau Claire campus. There is a strong correlation between temperature and precipitation data. On days that basically any precipitation occurred, the temperatures were dramatically higher in the months of January and February. As for March and April precipitation also related to temperature rising, but the extent was much less than that of previous months.
The above four pie charts are data collected from the weather data archive on the campus of UW-Eau Claire. Each slice of the pie indicates a specific wind direction and the size of the wedge depends on how many days that month the prevailing wind was heading in that direction. For almost every month winds coming from the west, southwest, and northwest were definitely the most common. This does make sense because west is Wisconsin’s usual prevailing wind direction. Wind directions also had a direct correlation with precipitation. Usually on days that the wind changed from western winds to winds coming out of the eastern direction that usually meant that there would be precipitation that day or the day after that.
This is a map of every tropical storm, depression and hurricane that has occured around North America since 1855. The data can be a little overwhelming, but it is extremely interesting to see the trends in the paths of these high powered storms. A great majority of these storms form over the Atlantic Ocean and in the Gulf of Mexico because that is where ocean current conditions and warming and cooling are at their most unstable stages.
This is a map of all the tropical storms, depressions and hurricans that occured in the Atlantic Ocean Baisin during the year 2000. As you can see most of the storms formed over the open ocean along with just off the coast of Western Africa. One interesting hurricane on this map is Hurricane Alberto. The storm started off the coast of Western Africa and headed west for North America before it made a complete loop, gained a great deal of power, and shot up towards Iceland and the North Sea. That path is definitely not typical for a hurricane.
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