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Introduction:
Weather data is reported in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and this
system is based upon a 24-hour clock of time measured along the
Prime Meridian (0 degrees longitude) in Greenwich, England.
Since most people are more familiar with the AM/PM time system, it is
important to be able to convert from UTC to AM/PM when determining the local
time for which a weather map is valid.
The purpose of this activity is to introduce Coordinated Universal Time,
and how to convert between local time and UTC. Key words
throughout this activity link directly to helper resources that provide
useful information for answering the questions.
Converting From UTC to Local Date and Time:
The Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) for each image is typically given
in the upper right hand corner, as was the case for the map of
surface observations given above.
Use the time on this weather image to convert from UTC to
local AM/PM data and time for each of the following cities.
For example, the time of this example image is 2000Z 28 October 1996 in UTC
and converting that to
Central Standard Time (CST)
yields October 28, 1996, 2:00 PM (CST). The cities below are located in
different time zones, and this will affect the result of the conversion.
1) Convert from 2000Z 28 October 1996 UTC to Central Standard Time (CST) for Chicago, Illinois.
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More Difficult Conversions:
As was done for the previous section,
convert the UTC time on the map above to local
times for the following cities.
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5) Convert from 0500Z 29 October 1996 UTC to
Central Daylights Savings Time (CDT) for Chicago, Illinois.
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Reporting Current Local Time:
9) Now apply your UTC conversion skills to current weather images.
Go to the Weather Visualizer
(
CoVis
version |
public
version)
and create the latest map of surface observations.
From this image, convert the UTC time (on the image)
to your local AM/PM time and be sure to show your calculations.
If the Weather Visualizer is too busy, here are additional web sites for accessing current weather data.
- WXP Purdue
- Ohio State University
- Northern Illinois University
- University Corporation of Atmospheric Research
midlatitude cyclones |
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observation symbols |