Interpreting the data
What these data tell us:
- These data tell us the number of extreme heat days over 90°F per heat metric and year across Colorado counties and census tracts; the number of extreme precipitation days where levels are higher than 95% from all other days per year across Colorado counties and census tracts; the number of drought weeks experienced across Colorado counties per drought intensity and year; as well as the number and density of wildland fires per year across Colorado counties.
What these data doesn’t tell us:
- These data do not tell us about the impacts of each climate component
- Comparisons with health outcome data or other environmental conditions should be done with caution
Numerator/denominator information
Event/numerator data
- Number of heat days over 90°F per year with temperature and heat index categories
- Source: Data Explorer, National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network.
- Number of days where the precipitation level is higher than 95% of all other days
- Source: Data Explorer, National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network.
- Number of weeks with severe or extreme drought per year
- Source: Data Explorer, National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network.
- Wildland fire incident locations:
- Source: NIFC Open Data Site, National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).
Denominator data
- Not applicable.
Limitations
- The heat and precipitation data used for this dashboard may vary from other local or regional measurements. Modeled data perform relatively well in estimating temperature and precipitation numbers, but these estimates may differ when compared to observations from local/regional weather stations.
- Heat and precipitation data may not reflect what is perceived as extreme conditions across geographies, as individuals have varying degrees of acclimatization to weather and climate conditions.
- Precipitation estimates do not separate the type of precipitation (snow, rain, sleet, etc.).
- County and census tract level estimates are obtained by processing modeled data, which could result in geographical misclassifications from using census block group centroids to obtain estimates.
- Drought monitoring incorporates input from experts across the country which allows for the incorporation of additional data, but will inevitably result in irreproducible published maps.
- The size of wildland fires incident point data displayed on the map represent a visual of size in acres, and does not represent a real scale size for these incidents.