Images/Tutorial

Exercise 6: Work with and analyze archived local weather

Above is a chart showing March temperatures for each year from 1901 to 2014. The overall trend from the data is a decline until the year 1960, and then an increase in temperature to the present. The difference between March temperatures this year and last year appears to be very fine, and upon a closer look the difference appears to only be .99 degrees Fahrenheit colder than the previous year. In comparison to the average line, the temperatures from the past two years have been lower than average, but only by less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit. 

 Above is a similar chart, only this time the March temperatures are restricted to Wisconsin as opposed to the contiguous United States. The shape of the trend is very similar to the contiguous United States plot, besides all the values being about 14 degrees Fahrenheit colder. At first glance I was surprised to see the chart look so similar, but then I noticed that the y-axis is adjusted  which explained the temperature drop. This year's March recordings are almost 5 degrees Fahrenheit colder, and continue to drive further below the March average. The 2014 March recording is the coldest since 1966. 

After examining the March Precipitation recordings for Wisconsin, a very slight trend can be found as the data seems to decrease until the mid 1930's before rising afterwards. In comparison to last year, Wisconsin has received almost a full inch less of precipitation than in 2013. This has caused the 2014 data to drop under the average of about 1.8 inches of precipitation, which is quite low considering the past 3 years have all been above the state average. 

The regional temperature ranks tell us how different regions of the contiguous United States have compared to their own averages. This means that all the blue regions have been much colder this March than the average that has been calculated since 1895. The red regions, including the northwest, the west coast, and the southwest, have all had warmer March recordings than their averages. Temperatures in March 2014 ranged from 5 degrees in the northeast to 109 degrees on the west coast. 

This is a similar rank map which shows March precipitation recordings as opposed to temperature recordings. The central regions of the country all experienced less than average amounts of precipitation, while the northwest was the only region to experience more than average precipitation. 

Top Ten Coldest Years
1965, 1912, 1960, 1969, 1906, 1915, 1924, 1932, 1899, 1958
Top Ten Warmest Years
2012, 1910, 2007, 2004, 1946, 1921, 1986, 2000, 1918, 1907

This information is useful to the climate change debate because many times people will mention that since it was such a cold winter, global warming isn't happening. Well if you look at the trends from earlier in the exercise, it is obvious that every few years there is a massive spike above average and a massive spike below average, but the overall trend is rising in between those data spikes. It is the trends that we have to look at and pay attention to, not just the temperatures of one year. Data that could back up this response could be recordings of emission levels across the country, or maybe even pan measurements for evaporation levels.