Request: Graphs comparing past periods to current conditions (??)

[elagache]

Dear Stu and WeatherCat fans,

The National Weather Service is having some difficulty getting the forecast highs on the mark.  Yesterday the high was supposed to be 85˚ F (30˚ C).  It turned out to be 94˚ F (35˚ C).  Today's forecast is also ambitious with the actual forecasted number being 82˚ F but the forecast discussion claiming it would only cool by a few degrees.

It occurred to me that one way for me judge how hot it will be is to have a graph showing how the temperature is rising and have the plot of the temperatures for the previous day on the same graph for comparison.  If the rate of climb is looking similar, odds are the temperature will be close to the same.  What I thinking about is something like this graph of California electricity consumption and reserves:

http://www.caiso.com/outlook/SystemStatus.html

Another kind of graph that would have a similar character would be a bar chart of current rainfall compared to the previous year.

Not sure what else could be done with a feature like this, but thought I would toss it out to the WeatherCat user community, what do you think?

Cheers, Edouard 

[WCDev]

Added to the request list 

[elagache]

Dear Stu and WeatherCat fans,

Added to the request list 

Thanks Stu!!   

Although I remain curious, would anyone else would find feature this useful for something they do weather-wise?

Cheers, Edouard 

[Steve]

Ours varies so much, I'd never expect two days in a row to be similar, let alone year over year.

[elagache]

Hi Steve and WeatherCat fans,

Ours varies so much, I'd never expect two days in a row to be similar, let alone year over year.

I certainly see your point about air temperature.  That case it wouldn't make sense.  However, there might be other measurements where you might find usable comparisons even with your wild weather.  It just occurred to me, would a graph of soil temperature compared say to the same month in the previous year be interesting?  That way you could just whether the soil is warming up as fast as your previous planting season.  That information might help you decide when say to purchase plants or some other logistics prior to planting.

In the fall, perhaps a graph of the number of frost days compared to the previous year might be useful in judging things like when to winterize.  Given that climate seems "more variable," it might also be interesting to see if things that we have periodic done at particular times in the calender might instead need to be done earlier or later because the climatic conditions required are shifting.

Anything like that seem more appealing?

Cheers, Edouard 

[Steve]

Yep, those would be interesting. I wasn't thinking beyond temperature and rainfall. Other measurements could be useful.

THanks,
Steve