Maximum and Minimum Temperatures

Probability: Maximum and Minimum Temperatures

Search the Internet for U.S. climate data.

Choose the city in which you live: Washington, D.C. 

Click on the tab that reads “Daily.” 

1. Prepare a spreadsheet with three columns:  Date, High Temperature, and Low Temperature.  List the past 60 days for which data is available.

1. Prepare a histogram for the data on high temperatures and comment on the shape of the distribution as observed from these graphs.

1. Calculate  and S. 

1. What percentage of the high temperatures are within the interval   – S to  + S?

1. What percentage of the high temperatures are within the interval   – 2S to  + 2S?

1. How do these percentages compare to the corresponding percentages for a normal distribution (68.26% and 95.44%, respectively)?

1. Repeat Parts 2 to 6 for the minimum temperatures on your spreadsheet. 

1. Would you conclude that the two distributions are normally distributed?  Why or why not?