Images/Data

This map shows the wind speed and wind direction of the United States for May 23, 2006 at 11:00 am PST. Clockwise circling wind patterns denote a High pressure system, whereas counterclockwise motion indicates a Low pressure system. The highest winds can ben seen in the central strip of the nation. These winds are showing High pressure.

This map shows the wind speed and wind direction for the United States for November 9, 2006. Clockwise wind denoting High pressure can also be seen in the central strip of the nation in this map; although, the wind speeds are much less in this map than the previous one from 6 months earlier. The wind intensity differences between the maps can be explained by the seasonal differences.

This kriging map was created by combining all of the groups' data in our Geography 347 course together. Combining the data of all the class groups together is virtually useless, because each group collected their data at different times and dates. Unless we wanted to present a crude average of data over the course of a number of days, this compiled data is misleading. By examining the data, we are seeing all the temperatures collected at different times of the day and night, not giving an accurate account for the climate at a particular time and date.

This image shows the temperature variance of the campus. The data was compiled between 8 pm and 11 pm. The larger the circle, the higher the temperature. The lower temperatures tended to be out in the open (but not on asphalt or concrete) and away from buildings.

This image shows the dew points of the same points of data collected between 8 pm an 11 pm.

This image combines the temperature (teal) and dew point (goldenrod) data entries.

The closes dew point depression values occurred near the river. This makes sense since there would be more water in the air surrounding a river. The temperatures also tended to be colder next to the river. This means that temperature is lower than other areas and dew point is higher than other areas near the river, causing the dew point depression values to be closer.

This is a kriging map of my group's data, collected between 8 pm and 11 pm on the UW-Eau Claire campus. The teal dots indicate the points in which we collected data from. The larger the dot, the higher the temperature. Kriging maps fill in the blanks for you as you view the image. The darker orange, the higher the temperature. The closer to green, the lower the temperature.

This image shows wind speed and direction for our data points, collected at the UW-Eau Claire campus between 8 pm and 11 pm. The symbology used is a line and flag. The flag portion of the symbology tells you the wind speed. All wind speeds in our collection were under 5 mph.

This kriging image displays the temperature of our collected data, with teal circles also telling temperature. The wind speed and direction is indicated for each point, all being between 0 and 5 mph.

This is a map of all the hurricanes that have impacted the United States. As you can see by all the hurricane paths (the red lines), hurricanes have a tendency to originate off the western coast of Africa if they are going to hit our "hurricane alley" along the Gulf Coast and the East Coast area. Hurricanes need large open water basin areas, warm water, deep water, a latitude of at least around 5 degrees above the equator, and a lack of wind shearing to be born. As you can see in the map, landfall is often what "kills" the hurricane.

This is a close-up of Louisiana from the same map that was just seen above. It is a jarring reality that inhabitation in Louisiana is dangerously unwise. Catastrophic destruction is not an issue of "if" but instead an issue of "when."

In 2000, these were the hurricanes that tracked through the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the United States. Alberto is the hurricane with the interesting looping path.