Statistics - The Large Dataset

Question 1

What years is the data from?

Answer 1

May-October 1987 and May-October 2015

Question 2

Where are the eight weather stations?

Answer 2

UK - Camborne, Hurn, Heathrow, Leeming, Leuchars (South —> North)
Overseas - Beijing, Jacksonville (North America), Perth (Australia)

Question 3

How are air temperatures (the daily mean temperature) recorded?

Answer 3

By thermometers in a louvered screen 1.25 metres above short grass (except at some Weather Centre’s and Climate Data Logger stations where observations are made from a non-standard roof top exposure)

Question 4

What is the daily mean temperature measured in?

Answer 4

Degrees (celcius) to the nearest tenth

Question 5

What are unavailable readings recorded as?

Answer 5

n/a

Question 6

When is the daily mean air temperature recorded from and to?

Answer 6

0900-0900 GMT

Question 7

When is the daily total rainfall recorded from and to?

Answer 7

0900-0900 GMT

Question 8

What is recorded for the daily total rainfall?

Answer 8

Rain, any solid precipitation, such as snow or hail, which is melted and measured in the same way as rainfall

Question 9

What does a ’trace’ or ’tr’ refer to?

Answer 9

Very little rainfall (Less than 0.05mm of rain) - treat as 0 (so still use in calculations)

Question 10

What is daily total rainfall measured in?

Answer 10

Millimetres (mm)

Question 11

What is daily total sunshine measured by?

Answer 11

An instrument that measures the amount of solar radiation exceeding a threshold

Question 12

What is daily total sunshine measured in?

Answer 12

Hours (to the nearest tenth) - (shows the amount of bright sunshine)

Question 13

What is the daily maximum relative humidity a measure of?

Answer 13

How close the air is to being saturated with water vapour

Question 14

What are relative humidities above 95% associated with?

Answer 14

Mist and fog

Question 15

What are daily mean wind speeds measured in?

Answer 15

Knots

Question 16

What is 1 knot in mph?

Answer 16

1.15mph

Question 17

When is daily mean wind speed measured from and to?

Answer 17

0000-0000GMT

Question 18

What is the daily mean wind direction measured in?

Answer 18

Degrees (rounded to the nearest 10) - (also listed as cardinal directions - NESW - in the UK)

Question 19

Where is the direction of the maximum gust measured from?

Answer 19

From true north (in degrees)

Question 20

What is the speed of the wind also categorised in?

Answer 20

The Beaufort scale

Question 21

What is cloud cover measured in?

Answer 21

Oktas (to the nearest eighth) - there are 9 value it can take as it can be 0 as well

Question 22

What is cloud cover?

Answer 22

The fraction of the celestial dome covered by cloud

Question 23

How is visibility measured?

Answer 23

Horizontally

Question 24

What is visibility measured in?

Answer 24

Decametres (Dm)

Question 25

What indicates visibility data that is unavailable?

Answer 25

A dash (-)

Question 26

What is pressure measured in?

Answer 26

Hectopascals (hPa)

Question 27

What is 1 millibar (mb) equal to in hectopascals (hPa)?

Answer 27

1 hPa

Question 28

How was the mean sea level pressure calculated?

Answer 28

Calculated from a measurement made at station level

Question 29

What is the descriptive term for a 5 on the Beaufort scale?

Answer 29

Light

Question 30

What type of variable is daily mean pressure?

Answer 30

A continuous variable