Weather Rose Diagrams For Adventure
As adventurers, the weather has a huge impact on our outdoor activities. Timing our adventures with the weather can dramatically change our experience. We invented the Weather Rose to provide a quick overview of the weather in different seasons. The Weather Rose is not a forecast. It is a planning tool to help us understand general trends. We also think that it is pretty cool.
How To Read A Weather Rose Diagram
The Wind Rose was used in the middle ages to illustrate the speed, frequency, and direction of the wind. In the 1880s, the Rose Diagram, Coxcomb Chart, or Rose Chart, was famously co-invented by Florence Nightingale to raise awareness about the public health crisis among the British Army hospitals in the Crimean War. Nightingale’s Rose Diagram assigned the months of the year to twelve wedges and plotted data in a circular distribution that showed magnitude on a radial scale.
We’ve taken the idea of a wind rose and Nightingale’s Rose Diagram and put our unique spin on it to create the Adventure Nerds Weather Rose for adventure planning.
Weather Rose Explanation
We collected the average monthly high and low temperatures, average monthly rainfall, average monthly snowfall, and average monthly hours of daylight from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The Adventure Nerds Weather Rose layers three scales onto the same chart with blocks of color for intervals. The scales start at zero, and each block represents a standard measurement of 1 inch (rain, snow), 1 hour (daylight) or 5 degrees Fahrenheit (temperature). The smallest wedge at the center represents <1 or <5℉.
Rose Diagrams excel at demonstrating patterns in data but are not detailed enough to show exact measurements. The wedge style of the diagram exaggerates the extremes. The large numbers appear larger and smaller numbers appear smaller. A rose diagram is not a reliable representation of the actual weather, but we hope it is a helpful tool for examining trends. There are five main sources of error in the data. The NOAA data are from the closest available location. It is historical data. Daily weather varies dramatically during the month. Elevation and other terrain features impact local weather. All averages are rounded to whole numbers.
Weather Rose Legend
The circular diagram represents a year. Each wedge is a month. The top two wedges are December (removed from diagram) and January. The bottom two wedges are June and July.
The average monthly rainfall is in inches. Each light blue block represents 1 inch of rain for the month. The data are cumulative and displayed as the average monthly rainfall rounded to the nearest inch.
The average monthly snowfall is in inches. Each white/gray block represents 1 inch of snow for the month. The data are cumulative and displayed as average monthly snowfall rounded to the nearest inch.
The average daylight per month is in hours. A single yellow block represents the average hours of daylight for the given month rounded to the nearest hour. When the temperature and hours of daylight have conflicting blocks, we prioritized hours of daylight.
The average monthly low temperature and high temperature are in Fahrenheit degrees. The temperature scale changes 5º with each block, and all temperatures round to the nearest 5º. Dark blue represents the coldest temperature. Dark red represents the warmest temperature. The transition from a light blue/purple to a light pink/purple is at 45º-50º. The transition from purple to dark purple/blue is 30º, or freezing. The range of blue, purple, and red blocks shows the average diversity of temperatures for the month.
Weather Rose Trends
How can you use the weather rose to plan your next adventure? Below are a few examples of trends that we watch. What have you discovered?
Explore the space between the rainfall amount and the average low temperature.
The average rainfall and snowfall for individual months may be surprising. Are there any outliers?
Observe how the hours of daylight change based on latitude and the time of year.
Check out the range of temperatures for a month.