Weather

= Weather and the Garden = This page is to collect exercises which use the garden to teach about weather

Rainfall and the Garden
Plants need water to grow, and so steady rainfall is essential for a garden. Nashville has a wonderful climate for gardening. Our growing season (when temperatures get above 50o runs from March through October. Our rainfall is fairly constant throughout the year. Our climate is called "humid sub-tropical' - warm and wet.

The charts are jpg files. They can be taken out of this document and printed separately.

The term climate refers to general meteorological conditions. Measures of climate are usually multi-year averages like the chart below

What is our wettest month? What is our driest month? What is the difference between them?



What is our wettest month? What is our driest month? What is the difference between them?

A city's climate cannot predict what the rainfall will be in any given or year. In the past few years, Nashville has had years of unusual rainfall. Look at the chart below. Blue bars are average. Green bars are 2007. How was 2007 unusual? What was rainfall like during the crucial growing season. Was it a good year for gardening?

2010 was another unusual year. Look at the chart below. Again, blue is average and green is 2010. Can you tell what happened? Do you remember it?



Data Questions
Data on which the charts were made How is the average rainfall data useful? How is the yearly detail data useful? Do you need them both?
 * || **Jan** || **Feb** || **Mar** || **Apr** || **May** || **Jun** || **Jul** || **Aug** || **Sep** || **Oct** || **Nov** || **Dec** || **Total** ||
 * Average ||> 3.97 || 3.69 || 4.87 || 3.93 || 5.07 || 4.08 || 3.77 || 3.28 || 3.59 || 2.87 || 4.45 || 4.54 || **48.11** ||
 * 2007 || 3.32 || 1.84 || 2.26 || 2.75 || 3.30 || 2.36 || 1.47 || 1.38 || 1.99 || 4.95 || 6.20 || 3.83 || **35.65** ||
 * 2010 || 4.13 || 2.77 || 3.52 || 3.48 || 16.43 || 4.96 || 5.86 || 6.99 || 1.77 || 2.49 || 5.41 || 1.87 || **59.68** ||

How are the numbers useful? How is the chart useful?