“Hour-by-Month” Climograms as an Aviation Weather visual planning and decison-aid tool

This study describes and illustrates the use of “Hour-by-Month” climograms as a means of visualizing and utilizing single-station climatological data in Aviation Weather planning and decision-making applications.

Climatological data of this kind frequently reside in tabular/digitized form, but the ready availability of powerful desktop data analysis and visualization software makes it readily feasible to present such data in single-page graphical layout form, capturing in a quick-study but comprehensive way the seasonal and diurnal climatological variation of parameters of interest.

The methodology is analogous to that of a topographical map: calendar month comprising the y-axis, and hour of the day the x-axis. Upon the grid, variables such as Percent-VFR, Percent Heavy Fog, Percent Broken/Overcast sky conditions, Median Ceilings' Heights, Mean Surface Winds, and Mean Surface Temperature, to name a few, are contoured. Multiple contours on the same layout page can also be utilized, various color schemes applied, and sunrise/sunset demarcation curves overlain. Climograms of these kind are demonstrated for a number of first-order stations across California.