April 2017 Boards weather forecast contest
1. Predict the IMT (Irish Mean Temperature), the average for five locations, Claremorris, Mullingar, Casement, Oak Park and Shannon. The 1981-2010 normal value for April is 8.4 C. (max 25 points)
2. Predict the MAX (highest temperature at any regular reporting site as confirmed in the Monthly Summary of Met-Eireann) during April. (max 20 points)
3. Predict the MIN (lowest temperature etc, see above) (max 20 points)
4. Predict the PRC in April (rainfall and liquid equivalent of any frozen precip) as a percentage of normal values. The baseline for this is a grid of eleven stations, the five mentioned in part one above, and also Belmullet, Malin Head, Valentia, Ballyhaise, Johnstown Castle, and Cork. (max 15 points)
5. Predict the SUN (sunshine) for April as a percentage of normal values at six locations (Casement, Dublin, Belmullet, Cork, Shannon, Valentia). (max 10 points)
6. For a BONUS question (10 points), we will utilize the fact that there are now ten regular reports of sunshine hours in the daily data. These come from six that we use in the contest (Belmullet, Cork, Valentia, Shannon, Dublin, Casement) as well as Malin Head, Knock, Gurteen and Johnstown Castle. So for Easter Sunday which is the 16th, predict the maximum amount of sunshine (for seven points) and which of these ten locations will either record it or share it (for three points, two available for second place and one for third in the sunshine sweepstakes). A superbonus of one point for anyone who can finish top three in both categories (must score max of three for location). Forecast should be in hours and tenths of hours (e.g., 4.2 hrs) and the maximum possible is about 13 in the south to 14 in the north.
Enter by the deadline of 0300h Saturday 1st of April, after which penalties run at 1 point every 3h or portion late to 1800h 2nd (at this point the penalty stands at 15 points) then 1 point per hour after that.
Good luck!