Activities Using Weather and Climate Data 

1. Temperature differences (current weather)

To answer this question you will need to visit the UK weather and world data pages.

(a) Go to the UK data pages and complete the table below for London and the nearest weather station to your school.

(b) Now visit the world data pages and fill in the values for Adelaide (Mediterranean), Barrow (polar) and Singapore (tropical).

(c) Suggest reasons that explain these differences in temperature and general weather conditions.

2.Travel writer

You are a travel writer for a national newspaper. Your Editor has asked you to write the weather section for a special supplement the newspaper is publishing for readers planning a short-break holiday this weekend to various British towns and cities. The Editor wants you to cover Bournemouth, Aberdeen and Jersey.

(a) Consult the rolling archive of data for the weather stations in Bournemouth, Aberdeen and Jersey to gain an idea of weather conditions over the past 48 hours. The data for 0600, 1200, 1800 and 2400 will help you. Write a paragraph describing the conditions at each of the stations.

(b) Now use the forecast charts for the UK to see what the weather might be like for the next couple of days at each station. Write another paragraph describing the future weather conditions at each of the stations.

4. European forecast

(a) Complete the table below using the most recent data in the world data pages for the weather stations at Barcelona and Moscow.

(b) Use the latest European analysis synoptic pressure chart (T+0) to explain the current weather for each station.

(c) Now consult the forecast charts (T+12 onwards) for Europe, and write a short weather forecast for each station, covering the likely changes to the weather conditions over the next 24 hours.

5. Climate zones

(a) Consult the world data pages and fill in the temperature information in a table for each of the weather stations in the polar, temperate and tropical climatic zones.

(b) Use an atlas to find the latitude of each weather station and add these values to the table.

(c) Now use this data to draw a scattergraph, plotting latitude along the horizontal axis, allowing for locations in both the northern and southern hemipsheres along the same axis. Then add temperature on the vertical axis, remembering to allow for negative values on your vertical axis.

(d) Describe the general pattern that your scattergraph shows.

(e) Suggest reasons to explain this pattern.

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