CEVE 543 Fall 2025 Lab 8: Weather Typing Implementation

K-means clustering for synoptic pattern classification

1 Objectives

1. Apply k-means clustering to sea level pressure fields
2. Identify and interpret weather regimes
3. Connect weather types to precipitation or temperature extremes
4. Understand appropriate use cases and limitations

2 Before

ImportantInstructions

Do this before the lab date so that lab itself can go more smoothly.

3 Background and Reading

4 Tasks

Modify the code section below to address the following tasks.

1. Apply k-means clustering to daily sea level pressure fields
2. Identify distinct weather regimes and visualize their spatial patterns
3. Analyze the relationship between weather types and local precipitation/temperature
4. Evaluate clustering quality and interpret physical meaning of weather states

5 Code