Contour Analysis

Nick BassillFebruary 3rd 2009

Station Models

These display virtually all the relevant current weather observations for a given weather station

http://weather.cod.edu/notes/stnmodel.html

Meanings

Wind Speeds

An Example From

Tuesday Morning:

http://www.ral.ucar.edu/weather/surface/

Observations about Observations

• Conventionally, only temperature, dewpoint, wind speed and direction, cloud cover, pressure, current weather, and visibility (if less than 10 miles) are shown

• However, much of the planet goes unobserved• Large differences in temperature, dewpoint, etc.

can exist from location to location• This is why we must do contour analysis in order

to “fill in” the missing data

How Do We Do Contour Analysis?

• You can think of it like a glorified version of “connect the dots”

• However, for contour analysis, we have to “fill in” some of the missing data

• The goal of contour analysis is to allow for easier interpretation of the current weather

• Some things to remember:- Lines never cross- Always use a pencil so you can erase lines

• Now for an example …