A general question about understanding weather reports.

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Hey everyone. I have a statistics project that involves analyzing data from a weather station about a particular city. This data includes values of humidity, wind speed, temperature etc. for a period of 14 months and has high and low values for each of the aforementioned variables as well, for each day. What do these high and low values signify, and how can I use them in my statistical analysis? I have narrowed down the number of data points by taking averages of all the temperature, pressure etc. values for each month and then organizing these into a table month by month. I just don't know how to use the high and low values in any way. I'm attaching the Excel document (zipped up) containing the raw data just in case you didn't understand my description of the problem (which I don't think many people will ) All and any help is thoroughly appreciated.

 

[CCT]

You'd be better off tying your stats to lunar cycle since that isn't related to the man-made 'month' convention.

Then, your lows and highs are averaged per cycle related to Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall or even Winter, Winter-Spring, Spring etc.


Lows have a noticeable effect once large bodies of water freeze since the moderating effects of open water (higher humidity and heat transfer) are effectively stopped.

So, that might be calculated too - may be possible if someone tracked consecutive days that lows <=32F needed to freeze large local bodies of water.

 

[NetCablesPlus]

Well, if I understand your problem correctly, the highs and lows add much insight into the average temp of the day. For example, a classic truism is that both Boston MA and Santa Barbara CA have the same average temperature on an annual basis (I believe that it is roughly 68 degrees). Of course, Boston swings between -20 and 110 degrees each year, while Santa Barbara is more like between 63 and 73 degrees. So, the average temperature of a location in any given time period is not as interesting as the highs and lows.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

I think I might need to make myself a bit clearer. I have three values for any given day under, for example, Temperature. One value is under "Temperature", the other two are under High & Low respectively. What's the significance of that one value to these two other values? Sorry if I seem a bit thick-headed.

 

[SNGX1275]

I'm playing with your data. Your rainfall data doesn't make any sense. It seems to be cumulative, but sometimes the Hi is lower than the total, and I have no idea what the low is. Can you explain it clearer?

I don't think tying it into lunar cycles is a good idea, first off you'd have to collect that data yourself, and secondly its rarely shown that way, almost always given in monthly units. So I've broken your data into monthly. I'll put it up in a second, I think there are more cool things that can be done with it, I just did this stuff real quick.

Weather.zip

 

[CCT]

From the Human standpoint, the greatest significance to be derived from temperature data is the time when lows are consistantly above killer frost levels and the highs are averaging high enough to provide growth to crops.


Outside of that, unless tourism has become a live-or-die option, nothing else matters.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Wow thanks for the help SNGX, it helped a lot. As for the data, it's for an unnamed GCC city and the rainfall pattern seems typical of countries that have a monsoon season so yeah, it doesn't make much sense that way too. Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction. Thanks to everyone else too for their insight.

 

[CCT]

Kinda funny the humidity is highest when it rains the least. What planet is that?

 

[ravisunny2]

Do you notice the inverse relation between RH and temperature ?

 

[SNGX1275]

Well I think thats fairly typical to see. Relative Humidity is kind of a wierd thing that I haven't fully wrapped my head around, but I do know that nearly always at night the humidity goes up as the temperature goes down.

I'm not entirely sure (and haven't bothered to look it up) but I think the Dew Point is a better indicator of something than Relative Humidity, but RH is easier to monitor and people are used to seeing it.

I really should check out wikipedia for that information.

 

[Tmagic650]

Yeah,
here in Montana it can be -10F with relative humidity of 85%. I was in Key West, Florida one July with a temp of 100F with 99% humidity... very wierd indeed

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Just for an update, the city turned out to be some city in Oman that has a monsoon season since it receives monsoon clouds from the Indian sub-continent every year. Thanks for the help again everyone.

 

[tifc8lraz]

Of course, Boston swings between -20 and 110 degrees each year

Found out that low a few years ago :blackeye: ...... not sure about that high in a while though :unch: !

 

[NetCablesPlus]

Well, we certainly seem hit over 100 degrees each summer, but perhaps 110 was a bit of an exaggeration...