How can I find discrete geographic areas around the world which meet certain meteorological conditions?

April 13, 2011 8:55 AM

I need to identify certain areas of the world - figure zip cod/international analogue is discrete enough, although more granular is preferred - which meet a variety of meteorological conditions.

In general, these will be in coastal regions - in fact, all of the areas will be in coastal regions (but not all coastal regions will meet the criteria).

For example, I need to ID all coastal regions which have:

- avg. annual humidity at greater than 75%, AND
- avg. annual temperature at greater than 62 degrees F, AND
- avg. monthly rainfall at greater than 4.5 inches (54 inches annually)

Is there a source which would allow me to perform meteorological filters such as above and get a list of zip codes (int'l analogue) which meet the criteria?

Thanks, Hive!

posted by dyerfr to science & nature (5 answers total)

Is there a source of information to filter from? Perhaps someone with a higher geek level than yours truly could educate you on scraping said data, then filtering in your preferred program....?
posted by chrisinseoul at 9:10 AM on April 13, 2011

well... if I had the source, I would be prepared to do the filtering...

I think you've accurately re-stated my question, however - I need the source, and then potentially need assistance with the filtering...

so if I had a table that showed:

- ZIP code (int'l analogue)
- relative humidity
- average temperature
- avg rainfall

I would at least have the first half of the answer (source)... and by hook or crook will get the second half (filtered data).
posted by dyerfr at 9:16 AM on April 13, 2011

For most of the places where your conditions would apply (i.e., the tropics), analogues to ZIP codes are going to be either difficult or impossible to obtain, if they exist at all, and as far as I know there's no global source of weather data sorted specifically by administrative level. Here's what I would do: download the appropriate WorldClim rasters and use GIS software to find the exact area that matches all three of your conditions. Are you looking to know the extent of area itself, or do you actually want a list of administrative districts meeting these conditions?

(If it's just a worldwide map you need, I already have all the appropriate data and I could whip something up pretty quickly if you want - memail me if you're interested)
posted by theodolite at 9:32 AM on April 13, 2011

Is there some reason why you can't or don't want to use latitude and longitude to define your areas? Because they are pretty much the ideal identifiers of geographical information, and can be as detailed -or not- as you like, or at least as detailed as you can get the data for.
posted by Lebannen at 12:11 PM on April 13, 2011

theodite, Lebannen,

Thanks... the reason I was looking for administrative information is that ultimately, I am trying to identify actual buildings - hotels, schools, etc - which are in these areas...

I often fall into this trap on MeFi... not asking specifically for what I want...

thanks!
posted by dyerfr at 3:40 PM on April 13, 2011