Precipitation

      

      I chose to create a map of precipitation using the IDW and spline method of interpolation. Using the data of off the Water Resources homepage for Los Angeles, I created an interpolation of this season’s precipitation and the normal season precipitation. As the results show, it looks as if Los Angeles has not reached the normal precipitation falls in a normal season. You can see that in both the IDW and spline method, there are more dark blues in the normal precipitation maps therefore indicating that the normal precipitation has more rainfall. But some areas have reached what the “normal” rainfall would be and match the colors in this season’s map.

      The results of the difference between this season’s precipitation and the normal season’s precipitation are shown in a different map. The negative numbers or the lighter blue colors show that the precipitation of this season has not met the precipitation of a normal season. The darker blue colors show that the precipitation of those areas are higher than the normal season precipitation and this means that those areas have gotten more rain than average.

      However, it is difficult for me to tell which method is the more accurate method to use. At first, I liked the IDW method because I liked how it looked, but I think that the better method is the spline method, because it shows a smoother distribution. From the lecture, I got the impression that the IDW method was more complex because of the calculations involved in finding the unknown values. I believe that the spline method is the method of choice for this assignment because it represents the data more accurately and clearly and is a better visual than the IDW method.