latticeExtra (version 0.6-9)

EastAuClimate: Climate of the East Coast of Australia

Description

A set of climate statistics for 16 coastal locations along Eastern Australia. These sites were chosen to be approximately equally spaced to cover the whole eastern coast of Australia. For each site, climate statistics were calculated for the standard 30-year period 1971-2000. Only sites with nearly-complete data were chosen.

Usage

data(EastAuClimate)

source

Sites were chosen by hand from maps on the Bureau of Meteorology website. The data were extracted manually from web pages under http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/ and processed to extract a subset of statistics. - by Felix Andrews [e-mail] Bureau of Meteorology, Commonwealth of Australia. Product IDCJCM0026 Prepared at Wed 31 Dec 2008. Definitions of statistics adapted from http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/cdo/about/about-stats.shtml

Examples

data(EastAuClimate)

## Compare the climates of state capital cities
EastAuClimate[c("Hobart", "Melbourne", "Sydney", "Brisbane"),]

## A function to plot maps (a Lattice version of maps::map)
lmap <-
   function(database = "world", regions = ".", exact = FALSE,
            boundary = TRUE, interior = TRUE, projection = "",
            parameters = NULL, orientation = NULL,
            aspect = "iso", type = "l",
            par.settings = list(axis.line = list(col = "transparent")),
            xlab = NULL, ylab = NULL, ...)
{
   theMap <- map(database, regions, exact = exact,
                 boundary = boundary, interior = interior,
                 projection = projection, parameters = parameters,
                 orientation = orientation, plot = FALSE)
   xyplot(y ~ x, theMap, type = type, aspect = aspect,
          par.settings = par.settings, xlab = xlab, ylab = ylab,
          default.scales = list(draw = FALSE), ...)
}

## Plot the sites on a map of Australia
if (require("maps")) {
  lmap(regions = c("Australia", "Australia:Tasmania"),
       exact = TRUE, projection = "rectangular",
       parameters = 150, xlim = c(130, 170),
       panel = function(...) {
          panel.xyplot(...)
          with(EastAuClimate, {
            panel.points(Longitude, Latitude, pch = 16)
            txt <- row.names(EastAuClimate)
            i <- c(3, 4)
            panel.text(Longitude[ i], Latitude[ i], txt[ i], pos = 2)
            panel.text(Longitude[-i], Latitude[-i], txt[-i], pos = 4)
          })
       })
}

## Average daily maximum temperature in July (Winter).
xyplot(WinterMaxTemp ~ Latitude, EastAuClimate, aspect = "xy",
       type = c("p", "a"), ylab = "Temperature (degrees C)")

## (Make a factor with levels in order - by coastal location)
siteNames <- factor(row.names(EastAuClimate),
           levels = row.names(EastAuClimate))
## Plot temperature ranges (as bars), color-coded by RainDays
segplot(siteNames ~ WinterMinTemp + SummerMaxTemp, EastAuClimate,
        level = RainDays, sub = "Color scale: number of rainy days per year",
        xlab = "Temperature (degrees C)",
        main = paste("Typical temperature range and wetness",
           "of coastal Australian cities", sep = ""))

## Show Winter and Summer temperature ranges separately
segplot(Latitude ~ WinterMinTemp + SummerMaxTemp, EastAuClimate,
   main = "Average daily temperature ranges 
 of coastal Australian sites",
   ylab = "Latitude", xlab = "Temperature (degrees C)",
   par.settings = simpleTheme(lwd = 3, alpha = 0.5),
   key = list(text = list(c("July (Winter)", "February (Summer)")),
              lines = list(col = c("blue", "red"))),
   panel = function(x, y, z, ..., col) {
      with(EastAuClimate, {
         panel.segplot(WinterMinTemp, WinterMaxTemp, z, ..., col = "blue")
         panel.segplot(SummerMinTemp, SummerMaxTemp, z, ..., col = "red")
      })
   })

## Northern sites have Summer-dominated rainfall;
## Southern sites have Winter-dominated rainfall.
xyplot(SummerRain + WinterRain ~ Latitude, EastAuClimate,
       type = c("p", "a"), auto.key = list(lines = TRUE),
       ylab = "Rainfall (mm / month)")

## Clear days are most frequent in the mid latitudes.
xyplot(RainDays + CloudyDays + ClearDays ~ Latitude, EastAuClimate,
       type = c("p", "a"), auto.key = list(lines = TRUE),
       ylab = "Days per year")