What does "Range" mean on Wunderground?

January 5, 2017 3:12 PM

On Weather Underground, how is the "Range" for daily high and low determined? (Under "History" when you view a forecast, e.g. this one.) It looks like it's different from record minimum and record maximum, but I can't find any info on how it's calculated.
posted by capricorn to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

So, after fiddling with the website to find the "range" you were speaking of, I don't think it lists the way it's calculated so to speak. The range it's talking about, I think, is the historical values of the temperatures for that given day e.g. January 5th in a certain zip code or very specific geographic area. The site makes reference to the almanac which is a historical reference book of temperatures and weather-related information that typically farmers use for planting purposes.

If you look at the site, right next to the word range, there is an asterisk. Down below, the asterisk signals that the range is "based on data from 1999 - present". So the data it is referring to is historical data, in other words, temperatures from years past that are being compared to the temperatures of the present. The high and low would then be the highest and lowest temperatures observed in that zipcode since 1999 probably not including today.

I could be completely wrong (and stand corrected if so), but that's how it reads to me.
posted by strelitzia at 4:05 PM on January 5, 2017

It just occurred to me to mention that this historical range would be the range in temperatures on the same date every year in case that wasn't already clear.
posted by strelitzia at 4:28 PM on January 5, 2017

Dear Tom (aka World's Awesomest Weatherman), how are averages calculated?

Tom again, 1999

Climate.gov average temperature info
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:26 PM on January 5, 2017

Response by poster: strelitzia: "I could be completely wrong (and stand corrected if so), but that's how it reads to me."

Yeah, it's not that - the record high and low temperatures are different from the high and low temperatures in the "Range", even if the record was set post '99.

Eyebrows McGee - I'm looking specifically for an explanation of Wunderground's "Range" values for daily high and low, not how temperature averages are calculated in general.

Is it an interquartile range maybe?
posted by capricorn at 5:46 AM on January 6, 2017

Why not tweet @wunderground and ask?
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 8:57 AM on January 6, 2017

Response by poster: Ooh, good idea! I just tweeted them and will report back if they respond.
posted by capricorn at 10:05 AM on January 6, 2017