The following is copied from the assignment instructions, but essentially, it involves collecting data from the NOAA/TAO data site for my assigned buoy and city (Buoy site located at Latitude/Longitude of 2 degrees South, 156 degrees east, and Tokyo Japan as the city). Then the assignment wants the information collected to be inserted into the attatched spreadsheet. While the assignment might mention writing a paper, I’m only looking for the spreadsheet to be completed at this time. ******** you will collect weather data for a city to which you have been assigned and display the data using graphs. This project focuses on ENSO, or El Nino Southern Oscillation. In this project you will compare data from past known ENSO events to what is happening today (recent period), and you will present what your current data says about the current ENSO behavior (El Nino, La Nina, neutral?). Buoy data tells you what ENSO is currently doing (in the equatorial Pacific, where it originates), and your city data tells you the impact of ENSO events on that particular part of the world. You should address the impact of ENSO events on your city, both in general, and for this current time period, specifically. Some cities will have large impacts (flooding, drought, temperature changes, etc), while others might not be impacted by ENSO events at all. ***Assignment #2*** Collect specific climate data for a specific assigned city, over the same time periods as those for the buoy, and use it to fill out a spreadsheet I will provide – see below. Documents needed to complete Assignment #2: City Data spreadsheet template (fill this out with data from your city – look to Weather Underground https://www.wunderground.com/ and similar sites for weather history). CityWeather Data Spreadsheet F18.xlsbPreview the document
GEOL 302 ENSO and its Effect on Global Climate
What to do for Assignment #2:
1. Collect data and fill out spreadsheet #2
2. Write Research Paper
3. Upload both to Module 9 Assignment #2 Due
4. Upload Short PowerPoint Presentation (based on Paper)
to Bb>Group Disc>Project Forum>Attachment to your Thread
5. Prepare for Group Discussions
1. Collect data and fill out Spreadsheet #2:
Use the blank Assignment #2 Spreadsheet posted with the project documents.
1a. Enter data for each week of the period on the spreadsheet, recording the following information for “your“ assigned city (the city indicated on the list posted on Bb):
air temperature (oC): maximum, minimum and mean,
precipitation (cm) (you may have to use weekly data, or check other sites for this info.)
humidity (oC): maximum, minimum and average
average dew point (oC),
average sea level (air) pressure (hPa),
average wind speed (km/hr) (you can change units at the top of the webpage– see below)
wind direction (in degrees: N = 0/360, NE = 45, E = 90, SE = 135, S = 180, etc)
LOOK at the last graph below the data.
Climate data for global cities is at: http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/41217.html
This has recent and historical data back to ~2005 for most cities. If not available, check the additional sites shown below, or the Meteorological Bureau for your country. In some cases, some data might be missing. If you collect enough data to work with, and there are a variable or two missing, you can still compete the assignment with available data. Otherwise, inform me.
NOTE: Edit “Page Preferences” (at the top/center of the website) for both “English” and “Metric” units. For your report, comment on whether you see a daily pattern of change for temperature, pressure and humidity, and if so, discuss an hypothesis about the cause of the pattern. In addition, look at the graph that shows temperature relative to the ‘normal high/low’ (shown below the data) and comment.
1b. Record data for your city for the past ENSO events and the current data:
Recent El Nino, Recent La Nina, current year
NOTE: Spot check data for your city to be sure it is available. Again, if enough data is available to work with, some missing data is OK, but be complete if the data is there.
1c. Note predictions for your city at the following website for each of the three periods)
http://iri.columbia.edu/climate/forecast/net_asmt/
Do the predictions match the data that you collected?
In each case, check predictions for Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan and February to see if/how they change.
2
Supplementary sites to assist collection of “city” weather data
If you have trouble finding data for your city, then try these sites.
If you still have trouble, let me know.
WIND data for cities:
http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/41217.html
Go to Weather History > “Weekly”. This will give you a ‘weekly summary’ for the week prior to the date you enter. Look at all 4 graphs (located below the detailed information for the date you’ve selected). Try to determine if there are any patterns. How do temperature and pressure interact to produce the wind data graphs you see? If possible, estimate/assign an ‘average’ direction and wind speed for the day. Note any patterns (e.g., land/sea breezes). If it is ’variable’ and does not show evidence of a pattern, then write ‘variable’ in your spreadsheet. You won’t be able to plot any data but you might mention in your report if you think it is relevant. Note: Check wind data for all 3 periods (previous La Nina, El Nino, present La Nina); 1-2 might have ‘useful’ data to plot.
PRECIPITATION data for cities:
Precipitation data does not appear for many of the cities on the Weather Underground site (for reasons I have not worked out!). Several additional websites are useful:
http://www.tutiempo.net/en/
On this site, the most useful data will be weekly rather than daily. Go to the web site and choose your country and city (Note: sometimes the Met. Office is at an international airport which might be listed under the name of a smaller adjacent city to the one you’ve been assigned— in a few cases, you might have to investigate a bit).
Just below “Current Weather Conditions” (and above the location map), click on the tab with red text “Historical Weather Records”. Select the year and month of interest to you and that will take you to a table showing: temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, winds, … Record the data for the week ending with the date listed in your spreadsheet. This should include the sum of ALL the precipitation that fell during that week (NOT the average of the precipitation). Your aim is to compare the amount of precipitation that falls during an El Nino year and the two La Nina years. It would also be useful to check whether these data match generally those collected using the Weather Underground site.
http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/ This is the homepage from which you can navigate to present and archived data for the world (not just UK), but it is easier to use the link below.
http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weather/maps/forecastmaps?LANG=en&CONT=euro&UP=0&R=150 This is the page where you can see the global regions (Europe, Africa, North America, etc); choose one, then go to “History” or archived data for an individual country and your assigned city. Note that on this site, the archived data may include Max temperature, Min temp, sunshine hours, precipitation, pressure, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, peak gusts (although wind data seems to be missing for most cities!). If the variable is NOT listed in the menu below the graph, then data are not available. Sometimes the variable is listed, but then you click on it and get a “Sample” graph; again this means data are not available for the week/days you’ve selected. You can access weekly and monthly data which makes it fast.
