Overview

Contour maps are widely used to examine meteorological data. After completing this learning activity, you should be able to read and interpret contour maps of meteorological variables like temperature.

Instructions

Utilize the information located in the Scenario and Key Concepts to answer the questions located in this activity. You may refer to your textbook and notes to help you work through the assigned questions if desired. You will have two attempts to complete this activity. The highest grade will automatically be recorded. Once you have submitted your activity for a second time, you will be able to see the correct answers. Discuss with your instructor if you have questions about your answers or feedback.

Activity is due Sunday, by 11:59 p.m. MT

Submission and Assessment Guidelines

You will complete the quiz associated with this scenario within Canvas. For help on how to take a quiz in Canvas, review how do I take a quiz.
This learning activity is worth 4 points toward your final grade.

Scenario

After sleeping in, you've decided to skip your afternoon classes and go skiing, but want to know what sorts of temperatures you are likely to encounter. After all, you believe that "there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate dress." Observations from weather stations can be helpful, but a contour map that produces an analysis based on those observations provides information everywhere. Thus, you've decided to consult a contour map of surface temperature, examine the temperatures at a number of locations, and then decide where to ski.

Key Concepts

Although topographic maps are one of the best-known examples of a contour map, other types of contour maps are widely used by meteorologists. On topographic maps, contours connect points of elevation. On other types of contour maps, the contours similarly connect points of equal value for whatever field is being analyzed. For example, the map in Figure 1 presents red contours of surface temperature at 11 a.m. on a mid-winter day in February overlaid on a hill-shade terrain map of the central Wasatch Range. Along each red contour, the temperature is constant. Also included are ski-area boundaries as thick black lines and ski lifts as thin black lines. With such a map, one can determine the temperature anywhere in the central Wasatch, including backcountry areas.

Surface temperature analysis for the central Wasatch at 11 AM 3 February 2020. Figure 1. Contour map of surface temperature (every 2˚F) at 11 AM MDT 3 February 2020 overlaid on hill-shade terrain and ski-resort boundaries and lifts.

The contour interval in this map is 2˚F with most contours labeled. This means that there are contours every 2˚F (e.g., 12, 14, 16 ˚F, etc.). Sometimes you need to find a contour with a label and count off in 2˚F increments each contour between it and a contour without a label to determine the value along a contour that is not labeled.

Areas, where the temperature contours are close together, feature a large temperature gradient. On this day, the temperature decreased with height, so a large temperature gradient is found where the terrain is steep, such as along the western side of the Wasatch Range at point F. There are, however, areas where the contours are farther apart, such as at point G. Here, the temperature is relatively similar in the immediate vicinity.

Citations

Images:

- Figure 1. Contour map of surface temperature (every 2˚F) at 11 AM MDT 3 February 2020 overlaid on hill-shade terrain and ski-resort boundaries and lifts.
  - Citation: © 2014 Esri | Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, EPA