Innovative Climate Products Heat Index, Holiday, and Recreation Climatologies

1. Innovative Climate Products Heat Index, Holiday, and Recreation Climatologies Ashley Frazier, Corey Davis, John McGuire, Mark Brooks, and Ryan Boyles Virginia and Carolinas Climate Conference October 20, 2009 Wilmington, NC

2. Motivation • Heat Index Climatology • Request from NWS to look at frequency of high heat index by location • Holiday Climatology • Request from media for climatology for holidays that don’t fall on same date each year • Recreation Climatology • Corey’s dad wants to know where to fish Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

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4. Heat Index Climatology Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

5. Heat Index Climatology • Only stations with long-term hourly data are included • The earliest start year possible is 1972 • Discrepancy among many of these long-term stations from the late 1960s through the early 1970s when observations were taken every 3 hours Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

6. Heat Index Climatology Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

7. Heat Index Climatology Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

8. Heat Index Climatology 30 seconds to generate this graph Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

9. Holiday Climatology • Product provides temperature and precipitation averages, extremes for a specified holiday • Use NWS long-term COOP data Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

10. Holiday Climatology New Year’s Day *Martin Luther King Day Groundhog Day Valentine’s Day *President’s Day St. Patrick’s Day *Easter *Memorial Day Independence Day *Labor Day *Columbus Day Halloween *Election Day Veteran’s Day *Thanksgiving Christmas Eve Christmas Day New Year’s Eve Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

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12. Holiday Climatology Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

13. The recreation climatology main page, with a general search entered in the top panel. Recreation Climatology • Provides favorable climate conditions for outdoor activities in the Southeast • Users can input their intended activity, location, and/or date range, or may search for any of these three criteria Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

14. Recreation Climatology • Once the information has been selected and the user clicks “Submit”, a three-step process takes place: • Data retrieval • Data rating • Data return Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

15. Recreation Climatology • Developed hourly climatology for temperature, humidity, winds, precipitation, cloud cover • User defines location – we select nearest station • Favorable conditions are calculated based on thresholds Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

16. For each activity, the significance of each parameter is listed as a percentage • Not all activities are sensitive to a given parameter Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

17. Recreation Climatology • A favorability rating between 0 and 5 is assigned to each retrieved weather parameter for each hour Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

18. Recreation Climatology Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

19. Recreation Climatology • The formulas used in the schemes are not currently based on scientific or survey data, so ratings may be arbitrary Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

20. Recreation Climatology • Finally, the results are returned to the user depending on his or her search • General (user inputs Activity, Location, and Date Range) • Activity (user inputs Location and Date Range) • Location (user inputs Activity and Date Range) • Date Range (user inputs Activity and location) Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC

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25. Questions? Heat Index Climatology http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/climate/heat_index_climatology.php Holiday Climatology http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/holiday_climatology.php Recreation Climatology - Not yet operational; still work to be done to optimize queries for quick data retrieval and display Virginia & Carolinas Climate Conference - October 20, 2009 - Wilmington, NC