Sources of Data
Temperature and Wind over Land
    All temperature and wind data used in the Temperature and Wind activities for land areas were provided by the Western Regional Climate Center and used by special permission.

    Stations were selected from the NOAA/NWS Cooperative Observer Network. Quasi-hourly historical data were retrieved from archives at the Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC). Because of variability in reporting times, data are not necessarily synchronous. However most observations were made within the half-hour window preceding the time we designated on the activity. If you need more specific information about this data, please contact WRCC.

    There is one exception - the temperature data used in the temperature activity for Gillespie Field Airport was not available. High and low temperatures of 86 and 63 degrees F were substituted.

    The data archived at the Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC) were useful for our purposes because they:
    • Contained instrumental observations of both temperature and wind
      Not all data archives present this matching pair of weather observations.
    • Were recorded on an hourly basis
      Many data archives only store daily minimum and maximum temperatures. We could not have compared daily patterns of heating and cooling without access to hourly data.
    • Contained historical data
      Some resources offer current observations but do not contain historical observations (for days in the past).
    • Contained observations spread across the southern California region


    The Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC), inaugurated in 1986, is one of six regional climate centers in the United States. WRCC is funded by a grant from the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Department of Commerce. WRCC is housed within the Division of Atmospheric Sciences of The Desert Research Institute (DRI). DRI is an autonomous element of the University and Community College System of Nevada.



Temperature and Wind over the Ocean
    All temperature and wind data used in the Temperature and Wind activities for ocean areas were provided by the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) and The Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

    Stations were selected from the NDBC network. Although NDBC does not operate all of the buoys in the network, it provides hourly observations for all of the buoys making up the network. CDIP at Scripps Institution of Oceanography operates some of the buoys that are part of the NDBC network.

    The observations from the NDBC set of buoys were useful for this purpose because they provided hourly data to complement hourly data from land areas. Although all buoy stations measured wind speed, direction, and gust; barometric pressure; and air temperature, not all of the buoys measured sea surface temperature.




Hurricane Emily
    The satellite images making up the movie of Hurricane Emily and used in the Forecasting activites were provided by the California Regional Weather Server.

    Hurricane Emily was selected becuase:
    • It was first Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 season that included Hurricane Katrina.
    • It had an impact on summer weather in Southern California. The remnants of Emily brought hot and humid weather to southern California and was still a recent event when the Ocean Institute weather program was first piloted. Humid summer days of similar origin are likely to remain relevant in subsequent years.


    The particular sequence of images contained in our animation were selected becuase:
    • They contained infrared images that showed Emily's path regardless of day or night conditions.
    • The view extended across the Gulf of Mexico and into California.
    • The images showed not only the active part of Hurricane Emily's existence, but how this hurricane dissipated over land.