Dmae Earth Science printable pdf download

DMAE Earth Science

Names: _______________________________________

How Can We Observe, Represent, Analyze, and Compare Climate Patterns?

Introduction

Most people want to know only, “Hot? Cold? Wet? Dry?” So patterns of temperature and precipitation often

provide the best ‘snapshot’ of an area’s climate. Monthly averages contain a 30-year record. This is long enough to

provide expected patterns, even if there are years when unusual events occurred.

In Part 1 of this activity, you’ll use data found online to create graphs that will allow you to describe the climate

of your chosen locations. You’ll look at data for average (mean) monthly temperatures, average maximum

monthly temperatures, and average minimum monthly temperatures. Since temperature forms a continue

pattern, you’ll shows these using line graphs.

You’ll also represent average monthly precipitation. Unlike temperature, precipitation (rainfall) is not

continuous, so you’ll use bar graphs to show these records.

In addition to tables and graphs, climate can be shown in color-coded maps. In part 2, you’ll example and

interpret some of these.

Climate scientists often use anomalies to highlight patterns. An anomaly means how much some value is above

or below the expected value. In part 3, you’ll learn much more about the benefit of studying anomalies for

understanding climate.

Part 1: Temperature and Precipitation (Rainfall) Patterns

There are many online resources you can use to find climate data. Here are two starting links:

NOAA National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) US Climate Normals:

bin/climatenormals/climatenormals.pl?directive=prod_select2&prodtype=CLIM20&subrnum=

NJ State Climatologist Office

1) Select one of these and follow the links to obtain average (mean), maximum, and minimum temperature

data for either Newark or New York City.

2) A. On the left “Climagraph,” include as much of the information at the top as you can.

B. Now use the data and plot the average monthly temperatures. Connect these to form a line graph.

C. Next, follow links to obtain and plot the monthly precipitation data. Present these as a bar graph.

3) With the Winter Olympics coming soon, it will be interesting to compare the climate of our area with the

climate in Sochi, Russia.

A. Do a web search to locate suitable climate information (monthly temperatures and precipitation) and

record it in the table provided.

Here is one useful link, but you can find others:

Source (if other): ________________________________________________________________

( If you need to convert:

Temperatures provided in deg C  need to be converted into deg F for chart

Precipitation provided in mm  need to convert 25 mm = 1 in for chart

Dmae Earth Science