Check out a Radar Image showing precipitation (Around New Mexico)

It is easy to see the usefulness of the radar images, as it can show where the precipitation is, how heavy it is, and where it is moving.

Activity
We will be recording the weather of not just your city, but of some cities around you. If possible, pick several cites of varying distances from where you live. For example, if you live in Albuquerque, NM, you may be interested in cites to the west of you, such as Gallup, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. Similarly, pick cites to the north, east, and south. Of course, the cites don't need to be directly in those directions, in fact, it would be good to have cites in all directions, such as north-west or south-east.

Next, make a chart for each city. This chart might have the following columns:

How do you get data? For your city, you can get some of the data yourself, such as the temperature. There are books in the library that show how to make your own weather instruments. For the rest of data and the information for other cities can be found at various web sites. Here are a just a few: Intellicast National Weather Service CNN Weather Channel USA TODAY If you are using weather off the internet, you may want to record only the highs and the lows for a given day. Collect data for at least a month. If you can, collect data for several months or the whole year. The longer you collect data, the more trends you may see, such as the transition between the seasons. Interpreting the Data Now that you have the data, let's try to interpret it! Plot the following quantities versus the day: Plot the daily high and low temperatures. Plot the humidity. Plot the wind speed and direction. Plot the precipitation. Here are some questions to ask as you look at your data: Does the altitude of the city effect the temperatures? (Compare to other cities in the area) Is one city close to water? How does that effect the weather? Is wind from a certain direction promote good or bad weather? Is there any trend in the temperatures (increasing or decreasing)? Weather Forecasting Weather forecasting is an extremely important business. Your greatest concern might be wanting to know what to wear each day. If you were a farmer, however, you'd want to know how cold it might get (because your crops might freeze), you'd want to know how hot it might get (because your crops might fry), you'd want to know if it's going to rain (to determine if you need to irrigate). Having said this, weather forecasting is not an exact science. All of the factors discussed in this weather unit (and more) contribute to tomorrow's weather. To account for the complexity of predicting the weather, meteorologists generally rely on computer simulations to predict the weather. These computer predictions take into account satellite and radar data as well as temperature and pressure data at various weather stations. Activity Take the record that you have been keeping and compare it to the local weather forecast. How good are the forecast? Can you look at the data that you have recorded along with the satellite photos and make a prediction? Do this prediction for the next day as you record the data for today. Over time is there one method that works better than others? Don't be concerned if your predictions aren't as good as the local weather forecast. Possible approach Will the next day be sunny, partially cloudy, or overcasted? Look at the satellite picture. What's moving into your area? Will there be precipitation? Look at satellite data, weather front maps, and radar data. What's moving into your area? Click to see the Radar Image to find out!