The weather notebook assignment is designed to increase your awareness of the weather that is happening around you, and to increase your familiarity with the vast wealth of weather data available on the internet. For each week of the weather notebook assignment period your weather notebook should contain a one-page summary of the week’s weather, a one-page description of a new weather web page you have visited during the week, and a one-page printout from the web page that you have visited.
The weather notebook assignment is designed to increase your awareness of the weather that is happening around you, and to increase your familiarity with the vast wealth of weather data available on the internet. For each week of the weather notebook assignment period your weather notebook should contain a one-page summary of the week’s weather, a one-page description of a new weather web page you have visited during the week, and a one-page printout from the web page that you have visited. The weekly weather summary should be based on the weather that you have observed during the week and weather observations from the internet, making note of interesting weather phenomena that you have observed and describing changes in the weather over the week. Be as specific as possible in your weekly weather description. For the web page that you describe in your weekly weather notebook entry include information about the types of weather data you have found on the web site. All weather notebooks must be typed (printed on a computer). Handwritten weather notebook entries will be given a grade of zero.
| Weather Notebook | Date Due | Period Covered | Number of Weeks Covered |
| Weather Notebook 1 | 18 April | 3 April – 16 April | 2 weeks (2 weekly weather summaries and 2 web page descriptions) |
Download a sample one week weather notebook here.
Hints for getting good grades on your weather notebooks:
General Tips
– Type all of your weather notebook entries. Handwritten weather notebooks will receive a grade of zero.
– Write in complete sentences and check your spelling before turning in the weather notebook assignments. Weather notebooks that are poorly written will receive a reduced (or zero) grade.
– Make sure that you include the correct units (degrees Fahrenheit, inches of precipitation, etc.) on all numbers. A number that should include units but doesn’t is meaningless.
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Turn in your weather notebook on time at the start of class on Monday April 19th. Late weather notebook assignments will not be accepted.
– Include your name and student id number on your weather notebook, and staple all of the pages for the weather notebook together (do not turn in loose pages with your weather notebook and do not turn in your weather notebook in a binder or folder).
– We will be grading over 300 weather notebooks during the semester. The neater your notebook is the happier the person grading it will be.
Weekly Weather Summaries
– Each weekly weather summary must contain information for a total of 7 days.
– Be as specific as possible in your description of the weekly weather, and include daily high and low temperatures and precipitation for each day of the week from the weather station on the roof of Duane Physics. Weather from previous days can be found by clicking on the CU-Boulder weather archive link at the bottom of the CU-Boulder Weather Station web page.
– Compare the weather station
observations from campus with your own observations of the weather and
with other weather observations from the internet (the Weather links
page includes links to many local weather observations). Discuss differences between the various weather observations based on information provided in the “Local Weather” lecture and notes.
– Indicate the source (web site address, home weather station, etc.) of all weather data included in your weekly weather summaries.
– You may only want to type your weather notebook entries once per week, but it would be best to keep notes of the weather that you have experienced every day during the week. Make sure to include personal observations of the weather (things like cloud cover, wind, or precipitation) in your weekly weather summaries and compare this to the weather observations you have found on the internet.
– Submitting weekly weather summaries that do not match the actual weather that was occurred will be considered a violation of the university Honor Code and result in a failing grade for this class.
Web Site Descriptions
– Visit a new web site for each web site description , and include a one-page printout from the web site in your weather notebook.
– Each web site you describe over the course of the semester should have a unique main address (the http://www.weather.com portion of the address). Submitting web site descriptions of the same site (web address) will result in a grade of zero for the duplicate web site descriptions. Submitting identical or nearly identical web site summaries for any of the two web site summaries due during the semester will be considered a violation of the honor code, will result in a failing grade for this class, and a report will be filed with the Honor Code Council (see the Honor Code Policy link for more information regarding class policies on cheating and the honor code).
– Explore multiple links on the web site, and describe the data that you have found on this site.
– Include the complete web address and date and time of your web site visit in your weather notebook entry (the address and date included on your web page printout is not sufficient so please include this information in your written web site description).