This graph is
gradually rising over time. You can see that the lines jump around a lot, but
if you take the average over the years you can note the green line. This shows
that temperatures have been slowly rising over the ~125 year period. The
temperature is rising .17 degrees Fahrenheit. While this may not be a huge
increase, if this trend lasts it can have a huge impact on the ecology and
weather for areas of the country.
This
precipitation graph shows a slight decrease in precipitation. You can see the
hills and valleys but the overall average is what is important. You see that
precipitation decreases on average by .01 inches every 10 years. This may not
seem like a lot, but if this trend lasts for many years, this will keep growing
and growing which will have a very big impact on our landscape and ecology.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can see some supporting evidence
for climate change in these tables. Every single top ten coldest years is below
the year of 1930 besides 1979. The same can be said for the warmest years on
record. There are only 3 years below 1990 that were the warmest and 4 of which
happened in the 2000’s. This helps to show rising temperatures in general for
the future, since these patterns have been seen before. Some other data that
society might want to use is departure from normal averages. This can help show
exactly how many of the temperatures are rising over the years, and not just
the temperature itself. It might also be interesting to see precipitation
averages, since climate change does not only involve temperature alone. It
would also be interesting to see crop yields, since that can be affected by
climate change as well.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
·
Madison:
o
Temp
§
Min: January (16)
§
Max: July (71)
o
Relative Humidity:
§
Min Morning: January (79)
§
Min Afternoon: June (58)
§
Max Morning: September (91)
§
Max Afternoon: December (73)
o
Extreme Temperature:
§
Below 32:
·
Min: July and August (0)
·
Max: January (30)
§
Above 90:
·
Min: January, February, March, November,
December (0)
·
Max: July (5)
o
Rain:
§
Min: January, February (1.1)
§
Max: August (4)
o
Cloudiness:
§
Clear
·
Min: November (5)
·
Max: July, August, September, October (9)
§
Partly Cloudy
·
Min: January, February, November, December (6)
·
Max: July (11)
§
Cloudy
·
Min: July (11)
·
Max: December (19)
·
Milwaukee:
o
Temp
§
Min: January (18.9)
§
Max: July (70.9)
o
Relative Humidity:
§
Min Morning: January (76)
§
Min Afternoon: May (61)
§
Max Morning: August (86)
§
Max Afternoon: December (72)
o
Extreme Temperature:
§
Below 32:
·
Min: June, July, August (0)
·
Max: January (29)
§
Above 90:
·
Min: January, February, March, November,
December (0)
·
Max: July (4)
o
Rain:
§
Min: January (1.6)
§
Max: April, July, August (3.5)
o
Cloudiness:
§
Clear:
·
Min: November (5)
·
Max: July, August (10)
§
Partly Cloudy
·
Min: January, February, November, December (6)
·
Max: July, August (11)
§
Cloudy
·
Min: July, August (10)
·
Max: December (19)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The records date back on a 30 year
span from 1961 to 1990. This is a very small sample size since 30 years doesn’t
really show the best averages if changes are occurring. Also this data is over
20 years out dated so the information isn’t very reliable since it’s so
outdated.
1) Why
is it useful to compare your data to more than one of these locations?
When you
are looking at climate information it is better to compare areas over a larger
broad area. This will give you more accurate information so that you don’t have
any anomalies. Also there is also a chance that certain cities might have
different aspects that affect their temperature and precipitation, like
Milwaukee being on Lake Michigan. Comparisons over a larger study section will
give the best results.
2) What
variables may influence differences between those locations and our location?
One of the
biggest reasons will be locations near water. Places like Milwaukee and
Superior that are on Great Lakes will have more even temperature. Also places
like Minneapolis may have high temperatures because of the size of the city.
Places like Superior may have a bit more precipitation as well because of their
location near a body of water and the wind directions. Overall Wausau would
probably be the closest to Eau Claire. The latitude also would play some
difference, Superior is going to be colder compared to a city much more south
like Milwaukee or Madison.
3) How
might these data vary from your data regarding your data collection techniques.
One of the
big things is where the data is collected. If you collect data on the outskirts
of the city compared to somewhere like the airport you are going to have
different outcomes. Another big one is the years of the data collection. Since
this data isn’t even in the 2000’s you may see some different number if you
take data from past. Another difference you may see is if you collect data with
different equipment, which may give different numbers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the first things you note is that there is a big change once April
hits. There really isn’t any temperatures below freezing for the most part.
There are a couple lows that get below it but not much. The March data is a
little off since I had to use another year since the link was broken but you
can note that the mean temerpature for the day gets above freezing mainly in
March and fully once April hits. The mean is fully under during January because
of how cold it gets at night time and then gradually peaks above it a little in
February.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The predominant wind direciton for every month is almost always west. This
makes sense because that is generally the direction of how systems move through
the area. You start to notice changes in this wind direciton during the spring
shower season when they start to come out of the east more. This is because
when the winds start to come out of the east it generally means there is a low
pressure system in the area which means that there is usually going to be some
sort of precipitation. So you will note a lot of westerly winds in the winter
months when there is not as much precipitation. Then once the spring months
start to hit there is still a lot of westerly winds, but there are a lot of
east winds as well with the showers that come during this point.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
You see a lot of correlation
between precipitation and temperature. Mainly because the lower the temperature
the less amount of moisture that can be held by the air. You also see that wind
is somewhat effected by the temperature as well. When it is cold out you would
expect to get a lot of high pressure systems which will generally bring
westerly winds with it. You would expect the opposite once the spring showers
comes, since the constant showers will bring with it low pressure systems and
an easterly/southerly wind depending on where the system is at. You can clearly
see when looking at the climographs as well. You can see a steady decline in
precipitation and temperature when it is in the winter months. You can see that
as the month’s progress that the temperature slowly starts to rise as well as
the precipitation. Since the precipitation increases you would expect to see
low pressure systems which bring with it winds that are not the normal westerly
winds we see during the winter or during high pressure systems. You can see
some anomalies with this as well. There are some days when the temperature does
dip down lower than what you would expect. You can also see some wind
directions where it is not necessarily correlated with bad weather or good
weather. There are some days listed above that have westerly winds with a
precipitation day. The main thing to look at when analyzing this data is the
overall trends that I have discussed above. What is considered normal is what
you would see as the average trends, or what you would expect to see the most
of. There are, of course, some days and periods when the norm isn’t always
followed. This can be because climate is not decided by a couple of days, so
you should expect to see some days that are a little outside of the norm.
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