“Forecasting” Assignment

Due: December 17th (We don’t have class this day, so turn it in beforehand or in our mailbox by this date)

Assignment: for at least twelve of the next sixteen days, I want you to look up both the National Weather Service’s forecast, and the Weather Channel’s forecast for the following day (i.e. what are they predicting today (Tuesday) for tomorrow (Wednesday)?) for the city shown below. Make a chart or spreadsheet of some sort, and write down their forecast high temperature, low temperature, and any forecast of rain or snow (and how much, if they happen to mention it). Then also look up what actually happened that day (as shown in the “3-day history” tab on the right of the National Weather Service link), and write that down. After you’ve done twelve days, make a determination on your own of which one you think did “best,” and give an explanation. Remember, this assignment is basically an attendance-type grade – if you complete it fully, you’ll automatically get a 100% for that 10% of your final grade. It may seem like a lot of work, but it really should take you no more than 5 minutes each day at most.

You might make a spreadsheet like:

National Weather Service Weather Channel Actuality Day 1 high/low/weather high/low/weather high/low/weather Day 2, etc. high/low/weather high/low/weather high/low/weather

Here’s how to find the information: For the National Weather Service, go to http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ and type in your “City Name, ST.” (i.e. “Madison, WI”) as shown below into the search bar in the upper left, and go to that forecast. Then write down tomorrow’s high and low, and any weather they forecast. This is the same spot you can find what happened the day before, by looking at the “3-day history” link in the “Current Conditions” box and looking for the high, low, and any weather that happened.

For the Weather Channel, go to http://www.weather.com/ and type in your “City Name, ST.” (i.e. “Madison, WI”) as shown below into the search bar in the upper left, and go to that forecast. Then write down tomorrow’s high and low, and any weather they forecast (normally shown a little down the page on the right side). Sometimes there will be multiple options, but just pick one and stick with it (I’d pick the airport, if that’s an option).

Note: I’m not asking you to make your own forecast! (Although you could if you wanted to for fun.) Here’s how you know which city to forecast for – depending on the first letter of your last name, forecast for the city beginning with that name. For example, if your last name were “Monroe”, you would forecast for “Milwaukee, WI.”

A – “Austin, TX” B – “Baltimore, MD” C – “Chicago, IL” D – “Detroit, MI” E – “Eugene, OR” F – “Fresno, CA” G – “Glendale, AZ” H – “Honolulu, HI” I – “Indianapolis, IN” J – “Jackson, MS” K – “Kansas City, MO” L – “Las Vegas, NV” M – “Milwaukee, WI” N – “New York, NY” O – “Omaha, NE” P – “Philadelphia, PA” Q, R – “Richmond, VA” S – “San Francisco, CA” T – “Toledo, OH” U – “Utica, NY” V – “Virginia Beach, VA” W – “Wichita, KS” X – “Xenia, OH” Y, Z – “Youngstown, OH”