Lab - 8

It has seemed this season that there has been an abnormal amount of rainfall, as nearly every other weekend has had some precipitation. But according to the data provided to us by the county of Los Angeles, we are still under the seasonal average in some places. The first two maps on my map layout are the seasonal average rainfall and this current season’s rainfall. The data provided by the county of Los Angeles was recorded at several stations throughout southern California. But since each station is prone to errors, many stations were lacking data relating to this current season or the seasonal average, leading to the elimination of some of the data, leaving 61 weather recording stations that had usable data.

With 61 stations of data, the interpolation is a bit more accurate than if there were less stations, but if the county of Los Angeles fixed different errors within their recording systems, these maps could be even more accurate. The last two maps are of the difference in rainfall levels, either below or above average for this year. As you can tell, the map is split down the middle, with the eastern edge receiving more rain than average, while the west is below average.

This data was also interpolated using two different techniques. All the maps on the left were interpolated using IDW or Inverse Distance Weighted, with all maps using a power of two. These maps provided blockier but understandable data results. On the other hand the maps on the right were interpolated using the Spline method. These maps are much more beautiful and visually appealing, but it seems that some of the data is exaggerated, though this method looks much more similar to weather related maps we see on a day to day basis. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other, but it seems as if IDW is a little bit more respectful of distance, but Spline follows the terrain of Los Angeles County a little bit better.