28-day Recorded Heat Index and Air Temperature of ScienceKonek Weather Stations

Context: Recorded meteorological parameters, such as air temperature, from ScienceKonek's (SK) automated weather stations (AWS) could be seen in Wunderground (e.g., Merville-Sun Valley, Parañaque City). However, it is not as straightforward to verify whether it has been too warm or too cold in the previous days compared to certain normals. Additionally, heat index is not shown in the Wunderground dashboard.

Solution: A dashboard was created and published in Tableau named Daily Heat Index and Temperature of ScienceKonek Weather Stations. This has three tabs: Minimum; Average; and Maximum. Each tab shows the heat index and air temperature. For the air temperature, a red line has been added that shows the normally minimum, average, or maximum temperature for the month.

For both stations (Parañaque City and Muntinlupa City), I decided to use the normals from Port Area, Manila as this is the closest PAGASA station to the two SK AWS. The normals were calculated based on the values recorded from 1991-2020. The normals could be viewed here (look for Port Area, Manila). Its elevation is also almost the same with the elevation of the two SK AWS.

Questions that could be answered: The following are some of the questions that could be answered by utilizing this dashboard.

1. Is it getting colder in the past days, comparing the recorded minimum temperature and normal minimum temperature?
2. Which days had been colder or warmer than usual based on the average daily temperature?
3. Is a high air temperature corresponding to a high heat index (feels like) as well?

Notes: The Tableau dashboard was tailored to be easily viewed using a mobile device. I considered that majority of my target audience (Filipino netizens) have their mobile devices and might want to view this on-the-go. However, it is still easy to view the dashboard using other devices, like desktop or tablet.

The SK AWS gather amateur data and must not be treated as official data. These data are mainly used for educational and preliminary investigation purposes. For official and confirmed data, contact DOST-PAGASA or visit their website here.