The starting and ending dates of the desired "season" are also defined. For example, if the user desires the climatological winter season, the starting date could be December 1 and the ending date February 28. The user can also define the amount of data that can be missing before a month is excluded from calculations. The default value of 10% will usually provide a non-misleading product. Specifying a smaller value, such as 5%, will assure that a season has most or all of its data available and thus any impacts due to missing values should be minimal. Specifying a very large value, such as 90%, will include nearly all seasons with any data, but can be misleading if some averages/totals are based on a small number of daily values.
The following types of analyses are available:
The output can be displayed as either an html table or saved to a tab-, space-, or comma-delimited file. HTML tables are useful when the data are to be viewed online or printed. Delimited files can be downloaded and opened with Microsoft Excel or other popular spreadsheet and word-processing applications.
From the drop-down menu, the user also specifies whether the values in the product are ranked from highest to lowest (descending), lowest to highest (ascending), or chronologically (by year).
The output consists of two parts: the header and the table. The first portion of the header section is the CLIMOD standard header. The next portion of the header provides the element of interest (snowfall, maximum temperature, etc.), the units of measurement, the type of analysis performed (sum, mean, etc.), the user-defined season, and range of years analyzed.
The table consists of a row of data for each season. The columns contain all the summarized values for each season, as well as, the number of missing values during the season. If any of the seasons have more than the maximum allowable amount of missing data, the season is excluded from the analysis and is listed below the table.
The seasonal values are listed in the order specified by the user (i.e. ascending, descending or by year). An average of all the values is displayed following the last year. Following the body of the table is a listing of all years that were excluded (due to missing data) and the number of missing days during each of these excluded seasons.
| Station: KINGSTON | State: RI | ID: 374266 | |
| Latitude: 41.48 degrees | Longitude: -71.53 degrees | Elevation: 100.0 feet | |
| Station period of record: 01/01/1926 - 08/31/2003 | |||
| CLIMOD Product: Seasonal Rankings | Creation Time: 11/06/2003 12:03 EST | ||
| Element: Average Temperature | Units: degF | Analysis: Mean | |
| Season: 6/1 - 8/31 | Period of analysis: 1986 - 2003 | ||
| | |||
| Rank | Value | Year | Number of Missing Values |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 71.0 | 1999 | 0 |
| 2 | 70.7 | 2001 | 0 |
| 3 | 70.5 | 1994 | 0 |
| 4 | 70.1 | 2003 | 0 |
| 5 | 70.0 | 1995 | 0 |
| 6 | 70.0 | 1988 | 0 |
| 7 | 70.0 | 2002 | 0 |
| 8 | 69.7 | 1990 | 0 |
| 9 | 69.7 | 1991 | 0 |
| 10 | 69.6 | 1998 | 0 |
| 11 | 69.1 | 1989 | 0 |
| 12 | 68.8 | 2000 | 0 |
| 13 | 68.8 | 1996 | 0 |
| 14 | 68.6 | 1987 | 0 |
| 15 | 68.5 | 1997 | 0 |
| 16 | 66.9 | 1986 | 1 |
| 17 | 66.7 | 1992 | 0 |
| Average | 69.4 |
Years excluded because of more than 10% missing days (number of missing days are in parentheses): 1993 (30).
For additional assistance, you can e-mail questions to CLIMOD Support ().