Large Data Set

Question 1

Key Info

Answer 1

• 1987 & 2015
• May to October
• UK Locations: Camborne, Hurn, Heathrow, Leeming, Leuchars (South to North)
• National Locations: Jacksonville (Florida, USA), Beijing (China), Perth (Australia)

Question 2

Daily mean TEMPERATURE

Answer 2

• INTERNATIONAL
• How hot it is
• Unit: Degrees Celsius (*C)
• Range: 5 - 24 *C
• Warmer in Summer (closer to May)
• Rounded to 1 d.p.

Question 3

Daily Total RAINFALL

Answer 3

• INTERNATIONAL
• How much it rained
• Units: Millimetres (mm)
• Range: 0 - 20 mm
• Not symmetrical distribution (lots of 0/tr days) - Normal distribution would not be appropriate
• Can be tr (TRACE)
• Rounded to 1 d.p.

Question 4

Daily Total SUNSHINE

Answer 4

• UK ONLY
• How many hours of sunshine
• Units: hours
• Range: 0 - 14 hours (Leuchars can be more)
• Rounded to 1 d.p.
• More sunshine in the summer (closer to May)

Question 5

Cloud Cover

Answer 5

• UK ONLY
• How much of the sky is covered in clouds
• Units: okras
• Range 0 - 8
• Integer Values
• Measures the fraction of the sky is covered

Question 6

Humidity

Answer 6

• UK ONLY
• How much water vapour is in the air
• Over 95% =0.95 Mist/Fog
• Units: %
• Range: 70 - 100%
• Integer Values

Question 7

Daily mean VISIBILITY

Answer 7

• UK ONLY
• How far can you see
• Units: Decametre (Dm) (1Dm = 10 metre)
• Range: 200 - 400 Dm
• Integer Values
• Rounded to nearest 100

Question 8

Daily Mean PRESSURE

Answer 8

• INTERNATIONAL
• How much the atmosphere is pushing down
• Units: hPa (hectopascals)
• Range: 990 - 1040 hPa
• Integer Values

Question 9

Cleaning Data

Answer 9

• Making data usable for a calculator
• tr = trace (0 - 0.05 mm)
• Replace tr with 0 or 0.025 (midpoint
• Remove any n/a entries

Question 10

Daily mean WINDSPEED

Answer 10

• INTERNATIONAL
• How windy it is
• Units: kn (knots) (1 kn = 1.15 mph)
• Range: 3 - 10 kn
• UK = Integer Values
• International = Rounded to 1 d.p.

Question 11

Windspeed - Beaufort Conversion

Answer 11

• INTERNATIONAL
• Converting Quantitative to Qualitative Data
• Range: Light to Moderate
• Scale: Light, Moderate, Fresh, Strong

Question 12

Daily MAXIMUM GUST

Answer 12

• Strongest gust of wind that day
• Units: in
• Range: 8 to 50 kn
• Integer Values

Question 13

Wind/gust direction (bearings)

Answer 13

• UK ONLY
• Which direction the wind is blowing from
• Units: Degrees (*)
• Range: 10 - 360* (NO 0 - STARTS AND ENDS AT 360)
• Multiples of 10 only

Question 14

Wind/gust direction (cardinal)

Answer 14

• UK ONLY
• Cardinal = Direction on a compass
• Which direction the wind is blowing from
• North, East, South, West
• Describes direction it’s blowing FROM not TO

Question 15

Jacksonville (Florida, USA)

Answer 15

• Northern Hemisphere
• Hot Summers (Higher temperature)
• Hurricanes in October (but mean windspeed is relatively low so this is not reflected in data)

Question 16

Beijing (China)

Answer 16

• Northern Hemisphere
• Hotter, wetter summers (Higher temperature, Higher rainfall)
• Colder winters

Question 17

Perth (Australia)

Answer 17

• Southern Hemisphere
• Seasons are flipped
• Colder Summer (Lower temperature)

Question 18

Random Event: Great Storm

Answer 18

UK - Oct 15th/16th 1987 —> Links to Max Gust (+Windspeed? & Wind/Gust direction?)