Due Thursday, August 5th, at the start of class.
The purpose of this four-part project is to compare weather forecasts against actual weather observations. In this fourth and final part, you will write a script that compares the archived forecasts and the archived observations and that generates a simple text report.
You have archived weather forecast data. You have archived, reduced weather observation data. Now it is time to compare the two.
When comparing the data, we want to know whether the actual observed high temperature for the day was within the forecast high range, higher than forecast, or lower than forecast. For example:
| Forecast Text | Forecast Range | Observed High | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| IN THE LOWER 80S | 81–83 | 82.235 | correct forecast! |
| IN THE UPPER 70S | 77–79 | 82.235 | higher than forecast |
| AROUND 80 | 79–81 | 78.120 | lower than forecast |
Note: The “Forecast Range” values above are my own! Yours may differ a little bit, and that is OK.
There are many ways in which this task is hard. Make sure that your code handles all of these issues correctly:
There are two suggested formats for the output. Choose only one!
If you want a simpler task, use a report format like this. The exact details of the format are up to you, but it should be similar in content and it must be wrapped text.
On July 30, the forecast high was 81-83F and the actual high was 82.2F (correct); the forecast low was 61-63F and the actual low was 64.2F (high). On July 31, the forecast high was 83-85F and the actual high was 86.2F (high); the forecast low was 61-63F and the actual low was 61.1F (correct). On August 1, the forecast high was 83-85F and the actual high was 82.1F (low); the forecast low was 59-61F and the actual low was 60.5F (correct).
There are two suggested formats for the output. Choose only one!
For a more interesting task, use a report format like the one shown in today’s slides. The main difference is that there is an extra step of figuring out some statistics about the forecast deviations. The exact details of the format are up to you, but it should be similar in content and it must be wrapped text.
There are 5 days of data available between 31 July 2010 and 6 August 2010. The forecast high was accurate on 3 days (60%); the actual high temperature was higher than forecast on 2 days by an average of 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The forecast low was accurate on 2 days (40%); the actual low temperature was lower than forecast on 1 day by 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit, and the actual low temperature was higher than forecast on 2 days by an average of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
For today, your script must:
Do the work yourself, consulting reasonable reference materials as needed; any reference material that gives you a complete or nearly complete solution to this problem or a similar one is not OK to use. Asking the instructors for help is OK, asking other students for help is not.
A printout of your script(s). Be sure to put your own name in the initial comment block of the code. Identifying your work is important, or you may not receive appropriate credit.