Weather Data Collection and Analysis Project Purpose:

1. Learning to read and interpret meteorological data recorded hourly by official United States Weather Bureau stations
2. Relating meteorological data to developing weather patterns associated with a particular region or location
3. Correlating meteorological data with the geographical site and the geographical situation of the respective weather stations at which that data was collected.

Procedure: You will first need to learn to navigate around the “bells and whistles” of www.weather.com, a website commonly consulted for meteorological data. www.weather.com provides 24 hour data readings as well seven days of retrospective record keeping. Be sure to chose the primary station for each of the cities listed below that you will be recording data for.

1. On each day (DAILY) beginning Monday, April 17, 2006, through and including, Wednesday, April 26, 2006, record the required meteorological data (please see below) for each weather station’s recording times closest to the hours of 6:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., and 9:00 p.m.

2. The Weather stations that you will be recording data for are: Santa Monica, CA Las Vegas, NV Denver, CO Wichita, KS Portland, ME

3. For each of these stations at all of the hours (or closest times to) noted above, you will record: Time (given) of the observation Sky condition Air temperature Sensible (“feels like”) temperature Dew point temperature Humidity (relative) Visibility Atmospheric Pressure (surface) Wind direction and speed (mph)

4. Print out a daily weather map of the U.S. for each of the data observation dates (i.e. your group should have ten maps). These maps will help you immeasurably to explain the weather patterns and changes to those patterns that occur during the observation period. Obtain these maps at: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/dailywxmap/index.html