Hi Smudgy !

I owe you a question from two weeks ago.  Here it is.
(If you don't have time for this question, please let me know and I'll
open it to other researchers.)

What is the coolest HIGH temperature for Monday (tomorrow) in these states:

California
Oregon
Washington
Alaska
Idaho
Montana
Utah
Nevada
New Mexico
Wyoming 
Colorado
Texas

A 5-star answer would be in this format:

Alaska      Mount Sitka           68 degrees
California  San Francisco         73 degrees
Texas       Amarillo Airport      84 degrees
etc.
etc.

Please note accuracy is not critical.  Temperatures can be
approximate, and any reporting weather station (not necessarily a
city) can be used.


All comments greatly appreciated !


Thanks.
ron

---

Request for Question Clarification by smudgy-ga on 11 Jul 2004 19:15 PDT

Hi ron,

Thanks for "dedicating" a question to me. I'm not sure if this type of
thing is my forte, but I'll give it a shot.

First of all, do you want _predicted_ highs (in which case I seem to
be running a bit behind schedule!) or the numbers that eventually turn
out to be the _actual_ highs?

Secondly, how narrowly should I try to resolve geographic areas? Major
city centers or weather stations?

Thirdly, I'd like to double check that this is what you want: For each
state listed you want the area where the high temperature is cooler
than the high temps for everywhere else in the state. Is that correct?

Thanks,
smudgy.

---

Clarification of Question by nronronronro-ga on 11 Jul 2004 21:33 PDT

Hi Smudgy,

Here are the clarifications:

1.  Actual or predicted?  Either is fine.  I've found the weather
people to be quite accurate.  I will completely understand if there is
a discrepancy of a few degrees between actual and predicted.  You can
use either---whichever is easier for you.

2.  Geographic areas.  Not important.  In other words, the coolest
weather reading could be for an uninhabited weather outpost on top of
a mountain or for a gigantic city with millions of people.  Makes no
difference for this project.

3.  Your assumption is precisely correct.  The coolest of the highs
within a state.  The reason I did not simply request the "coolest area
in the state" is this:  I am not interested in low temperatures, mean
temperatures, or median temperatures.  I am only interested in
comparing high temperatures with other high temperatures in the same
state.

Hope this helps.  The question could be answered using Sunday
(today's) data or Monday (tomorrow's) data----whichever is easier for
you.

Thanks a million !
ron

Hi ron,

I hope you find the following answer satisfactory; if not, please
request a clarification before rating and I will do my best to clear
things up.

I started this search with a simple <"United States" "high
temperature"> search, which quickly got me to a few web sites of
interest, including the Weather Underground
(http://www.wunderground.com) and the National Weather Service
(http://www.noaa.gov). I stuck with the latter since the information
on the maps there (e.g.
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/graphical/sectors/pacsouthwest.php )
made it clear that I was looking at predicted high temperatures for
that day. (Weather Underground had a very useful chart listing high
and low temperatures, but it was totally uncler whether that was
current high and low temperatures in an area, predicted highs and
lows, recent highs and lows, etc.)

Alaska, however, was still nowhere to be found. In searching the NOAA
page for the missing state, I came across the following document:

http://www.arh.noaa.gov/wmofcst.php?wmo=ASAK68PAFC&type=public

which seems to give the highs and lows for all sorts of assorted
places in Alaska. However, it only gives the high temperatures for the
previous day. So I thought I would wait until today to get the
temperature for Alaska, and then try to find the corresponding page
for the other states in your list (since the text format and depth of
information seems much more browsable and precise than the maps did).
However, it seems that for all the other states, the tables were
either out of date, unavailable, or simply nonexistent. It was quite
frustrating. Consistency does not seem to be a hallmark of the
National Weather Service in this regard. My esteem of meteorologists
has gone up significantly.

So the information below is gleaned primarily from the National
Weather Service's high/low temperature maps for July 12, 2004, with
Alaska's information being from the Temperature and Precipitation
Chart of July 13, 2004.

California	San Francisco		67 degrees F.
Oregon		Brookings		64
Washington	Port Angeles		73
Alaska		Barrow Airport		40
Idaho		Bonners Ferry		82
Montana		Lewiston		80
Utah		Cedar City		93
Nevada		Austin			87
New Mexico	Santa Fe		88
Wyoming		Yellowstone		74
Colorado	Leadville		75
Texas		Alpine			88


I hope you find this information meets your needs! If not, please
request a clarification and I will do my best to remedy the situation.

Thanks,
smudgy.

Smudgy---very cool answer !

Thanks a million !
ron