Wisconsin March's have a very dispersed temperature readings. The warmest March recorded in Wisconsin was in 2012, when the temperature average was 45.6F which is 17.3F above the average temperature of 28.3F. The coldest Wisconsin March recorded was back in 1899 when the average temperatures were 17.4F, which were 10.9F below the average temperatures. When looking at the graph I can see a pretty distinct pattern. Before the early 1970's temperatures varied a lot between warm and cool March's in Wisconsin. Once the early 70's hit, you can see that the graph is mostly above the average temperature of 28.3F for a Wisconsin March. I find this trend quite interesting. Global warming possibly?
This next graph looks at the average precipitation for the United States in March. The highest recording for March in the U.S. was in 1973 when the precipitation averaged 4 inches across the U.S. That is a lot of precipitation just for one month. The 1973 March was 1.49 inches above the normal March average of 2.51 inches. Since the 1973 March however, each year until present day we have seen the average slowly decline. The lowest March average for precipitation in March came back in 1910, when the U.S. recorded average precipitation of 1.02 inches. This was 1.49 inches below the average U.S. March precipitation.
This graph represents the average precipitation for Wisconsin March's. The highest average Wisconsin received in March was in 1977 when we recorded an average of 4.02 inches, this is 2.22 inches above a normal March precipitation for Wisconsin. The average precipitation for Wisconsin is 1.80 inches. The lowest Wisconsin average for March was also in 1910 when we recorded precipitation readings of .13 inches. This is 1.67 inches below the Wisconsin average. I find it interesting that the lowest average precipitation for the U.S. and Wisconsin were both in 1910.
Looking at the picture above for regional average temperature ranks for March 2015, you can see that all of the west and great plains experienced above average temperatures for March. This is directly tied into the west having problems with forest fires and drought currently. The south and the lower half of the midwest saw average temperatures while the southeast and upper midwest saw slightly above average temperatures for March. The east coast saw temperatures below average. This is due to all the precipitation and a cold winter they experienced.
This is a picture of the top ten coldest years the U.S. has experienced so far. The coldest year was the 1917 year. the Average temperatures were 1.96F below the average temperature year of 52.02F. The next coldest year was in 1912 when the average annual temperature was 1.79F below the average annual temperature. Out of the top ten coldest years, the closest one to 2015 was back in 1979 when the annual average temperature 1.14F below the average temperature.
The next readings as you expect are from the top ten warmest average temperatures for the U.S. The warmest above average temperature we experienced was in 2012 when the temperature was 3.26F above the average temperature of 52.02F. That was the closest year to 2015 with above average annual temperatures. The second warmest year recorded was in 2006 when the annual average temperature was 2.23F above the annual average. Looking over the information five of the top ten warmest years to dat have come in the 20th century. I see this as a problem.
G) I consider the information that I have seen so far to speak volumes about the current debate of climate change. Just looking at the top ten warmest years to date, and seeing that five of the top ten have come in the 20th century raises a red flag to me. I would find it very interesting to see how this has effected the ice caps and wonder how much these could have possibly melted just from these years of being above average temperatures.
After doing a little research on the website, I was able to find the sea ice content for the northern hemisphere. You can see since the 1980s' that snow and sea ice has dramatically declined to current date. This is a very big problem.
Above is a graph representing the annual temperature for the city of Madison Wisconsin. To the left you can see the average temperature for each month with a graph to the right of it.
Above is the graph and data recorded for Madison's rain in inches. You can see that the wettest time of the year is in August when they recorded 4 inches of rain. The driest time of the year of course is in the winter time when both January and February both recorded one inch of rain.
Next we were asked to find the average temperature for Milwaukee. You can see that the warmest month in Milwaukee is in July when it recorded an average temperature of 71F. The coldest month in Milwaukee was January with an average temperature of 19F. Like any city in Wisconsin, as expected, the warmest month is in the middle of summer around June or July while the coldest months are early in the year between typically January or February.
This graph above is for the city of Milwaukee and the rain fall it received. You can see the two wettest months being August and July, while the driest months receiving two inches of rain being January, February,October, and December. As expected, the wettest months again come in the early spring and into the fall, while the direst months are in the winter time.
a) Minneapolis precipitation month to date: .06", Since March 1st: 3.15", Since January 1st: 3.84".
Minneapolis snowfall month to date: 0.0", Since March 1st: 7.1", Since July 1st: 32.4".
Eau Claire precipitation month to date: 1.06", Since March 1st: 4.53", Since January 1st: 5.12".
Eau Claire snowfall month to date: 0.0", Since March 1st: 7.3", Since July 1st: 38.1".
La Crosse: No records were found on either precipitation or snowfall to date.
These values compare pretty similarly between Eau Claire and Minneapolis, since there were no records for La Crosse, it would be hard to tell, but I believe that since all three are located pretty close to each other I would believe that La Crosse would also be in the same ranges. One way they could differ could be that the Minneapolis could have gotten a sever storm one day while it could miss Eau Claire and La Crosse to the north. This would skew the data in favor of Minneapolis. When looking at data for each city, the most accurate readings would come from each of the cities weather stations. This would allow me to see exactly what the weather is in each city rather then just using Minneapolis weather station to find the daily weather on La Crosse and Eau Claire.
4a) The farthest data that went back in time that I could find was the average rainfall for Eau Claire County. The farthest it went back was to 1931 and didn't even go all the way up to the current year. This could cause a problem by not being able to compare data from the past to the current year. It wouldn't allow for me to make an accurate comparison from the early years until now.
4b)
This is a climo-graph of the city of Eau Claire. The temperature is derived rom 30 years of data from 1961 through 1990, while the precipitation is of 45 years of data from 1949 through 1995.
The next graph is from the world climate website, and I looked at the temperature and precipitation for the Minneapolis Airport. The average precipitation was from 43 years of recordings from 1950-1995, while the average temperature readings were from 30 years of data form 1961- 1990.
This next graph is also from the same website of worldclimate.com. I am now looking at the average temperature and precipitation from the University of La Crosse. The average temperature recordings are from 1,296 months or from 1873-1980, while the average precipitation recordings are from 12 complete years from 1955-1970. I find it very interesting that the University was able to compile average temperature readings for La Crosse from so long ago.
This next graph is from Madison, Dane County Airport. The average temperature readings are from 30 years from 1961-1990. The average precipitation is from 46 years from 1948-1995. The reason why I choose to use Dane County Airport is because they tend to have very accurate readings because they need to know exactly what type of weather they are receiving and how much of it they are receiving.
The graph above that I created is from the north side of Milwaukee. I created the graph using the average temperature and precipitation from the north side. Since Milwaukee is such a large city, there is a possibility of the south side having different recordings then the north side. The average temperature recordings for the north side are from 1,320 months from 1871-1990. The average precipitation for the north side are from 5 complete years from 1948-1954. One way I could get more accurate precipitation recordings would be to find another location on the north side that would have data over a larger period of time for average precipitation.
This next graph is from Superior Wisconsin. I expect these temperatures to be lower compared to some of the other cities throughout the state because it is located in the northern most part of the state and right next to Lake Superior. The data for the average temperature for Superior is from 30 years dating back from 1961-1990. Moving onto average precipitation for Superior, precipitation will be slightly higher since its next to the lake, but since its on the western side of the lake they won't receive higher precipitation from the lake effect. The average precipitation from worldclimate.com for Superior is from 36 years dating from 1931-1995.
This last graph is from Wausau. Wausau is located in the very central of the state. Both the averages for temperature and precipitation will be closest here for the entire state since there isn't a large body of water playing a factor for these recordings. The average temperature and precipitation recordings came from worldclimate.com, and selected the Wausau Airport. The average temperatures were from 30 years dating from 1961-1990. The average precipitation was also from the same website and Wausau airport and were from 52 years dating from 1941-1995.
5) It is useful to compare your data to more then one of these locations because of a few different factors. One factor is location, there will be a difference in temperature and precipitation based on location. Comparing Milwaukee, Madison, and Superior for instance, while Milwaukee and Madison will be somewhat similar, Superior will be completely different because it is located so far north compared to the others. Another factor to compare these based off of is if they are located close to a body of water. Superior and Milwaukee are both located next to a large body of water. I understand that they are on the western side of the body of water, but it still allows for extra precipitation into the air compared to another location like Wausau.
6) Like I talked about in the above question, some of the variables that could cause for different recordings compare to the Eau Claire area could be location and bodies of water. Eau Claire seems to have its serve weather split either to the north or south and not directly hit the Eau Claire area. Now there is nothing really backing that hypothesis yet, its more of an observation. When dealing with areas that are located next to big bodies of water, they tend to get hit harder with precipitation as there is more water vapor in the atmosphere.
7) One way that the data I recorded could vary from the data on the websites I found is that some of the recordings for temperatures and precipitation go right up to our current year while others (worldclimate.com) seem to only have 30 or 40 years in the 1900's. These can cause a problem if your trying to find out how temperature and precipitation varied into the 20th century.
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