NOTE TO TEACHERS: 
These procedures are written to show you how you might use these technologies to teach science concepts. Suggested questions, approaches, and expected answers are all provided. Therefore, these activity descriptions should be used as a guide for your instructional planning, rather than as a step-by-step activity guide for students.

Getting Started

Before beginning this activity, you must have completed The Impact of El Niņo, Pt. 1. 

In the previous El Niņo activity, you compared typical monthly temperature ranges of a selected region to temperatures in El Niņo years.

What other data would help you determine whether El Niņo had affected the climate of your selected area?

In this activity, you will extend your analysis to compare typical precipitation ranges in your selected area to precipitation in El Niņo years. 

To download precipitation data, follow the same steps as in Part 1. The examples shown here will again use San Diego, CA. Go to the NOAA Regional Climatic Center web site. From the Western Regional Climate Center web page, go to Historical Climatic Data, then Western U.S. Historical Summary (individual stations). From this screen, select S. California, then select the San Diego WSO. Under "Period of Record," select Monthly Precipitation Listing (Monthly Totals) under the heading "Precipitation." 

Procedure 1   |   2  |   3  |