Thursday, December 09, 2010

Time for a nerdy interlude

Many of you know that I keep records of our daily temperatures and rainfall amounts in a spreadsheet. I've done it since early 2005. I wish I could say I have a fancy weather station on top of the house linked to the computer to automatically collect the data, but I do it the old fashioned way. I have a little form printed out and I write the daily high and low in the form.

Temperatures at our house for November 2010.

The thermometer is radio-controlled with an outdoor unit that's hanging on the north side of the house, under shelter and shaded. I have a plastic rain gauge in the back yard that I have to remember to look at after each rain, and empty. The daily recordings are habits now and I rarely forget to do them.

Six years worth of highs and lows. Click to encelciate.

These charts are made from the spreadsheet program. The top one shows how our temperatures dropped somewhat dramatically during the month of November. We spent the first half of the month enjoying highs around 15ºC (the high 50sF). The second half of the month we watched (and felt) the temperatures fall steadily to zero (freezing) and below. The snowstorm we had occurred on Sunday the twenty-eighth.

The bottom chart shows all the temperatures I've recorded since March 2005. Isn't retirement fun?

10 comments:

  1. OMG!!! Is this what I have to look forward to in my retirement. With the GFC (global financial crisis, not Geelong Football Club for Aussie readers) I need to work a few more years. Guess being a weather nerd will be delayed.
    Having said that Walt, I have a weather post tomorrow. Cheers to you both.

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  2. No thank you. Encelciating always makes it look much worserer.

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  3. Geeky but yes neat. Glad you're enjoying retirement. Just 20 more years and I too can start tracking the weather. : )

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  4. Chouette! I see the canicule and a cold day in Jan. 09.

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  5. Retirement is fun!

    But I still have problems with metric temperatures being very meaningful to me. How long did it take you to overcome this? Or was it never a problem?

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  6. Walt

    Does Ken take over when you are away for a long period?

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  7. Very cool. The years are remarkably stable.

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  8. But aren't you glad you don't live in Paris right now?

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  9. leon, the weather will be there when you retire...

    susan, :)

    rick, it's more fun than... no wait, it's not.

    evelyn, I'm actually kind of hoping for another canicule, it's been so cold. I may regret that...

    mark, ;)

    krist, I just kind of got used to it. I can't convert, except for a few special cases, like 0=32, or 180=350 (for baking), and 100=212.

    beaver, yes!

    cubby, overall, yes, but there are hotter summers and cooler summers. The big chart scrunches it all up so it's hard to see.

    starman, absolutely.

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