11-Windrose Diagram Exercise: WRPLOT View, Lakes Environmental

Prior to initiating WRPLOT View, you must ensure that all Excel meteorology files are
formatted appropriately. The model requires that all data be organized into seven labeled
columns: Year, Month, Day, Hour (00-23 OR 01-24), Wind Direction (degrees [integers]),
Wind Speed (meters/second, knots, mph, OR km/h), Precipitation Inches (include
decimals to 100ths of an inch [ex: 1.02]).
For an example/template, please see the Excel document titled
Sample_Excel_Data_For_WRPLOT.xls. Important! Excel file must be saved as an .xls
file (Excel 97-2003 file type).
For the purposes of this module, we have created a refined Excel file from the raw data
that was generously provided by the Pechanga tribe (file name Pechanga_WRPLOT
data). You will note that there are two sheets, one titled Data and the other titled
WRPLOT ready.
The Data page contains data directly copied over from the original raw data file. The
temporal data on this sheet is displayed as Date Time (ex: 10/22/08 0:00). As was
previously mentioned, the model requires that data be formatted into seven labeled
categories: year, month, day, hour, wind direction, wind speed, precipitation (in). To
convert the Date Time column into the correct format, one would complete the following
steps.
NOTE we have already converted the column and created a model-ready spreadsheet
so you DO NOT have to reformat the Date Time column. This next section is purely
informational.

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11-Windrose Diagram Exercise: WRPLOT View, Lakes Environmental

Step 1 of 4:
Copy the Date Time column > Paste into a new sheet (this way you retain a sheet with the
raw data for reference later on) > Delete rows 1 and 2 > Select the pasted column >
Under the Data tool bar, click Text to Columns.

Step 2 of 4:
Select Delimited > click Next > Delimiters: space, other ( / ) > Make sure that the
Treat consecutive delimiters as one box is checked > Text qualifier should be (this is
the default setting) > click Next > under Column data format, select Text > click
Finish

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11-Windrose Diagram Exercise: WRPLOT View, Lakes Environmental

Youll note a formula error message in Column A which states Number Stored as Text

To correct this error Highlight Column A, click on the formula error icon, and select
Convert to Number
Step 3 of 4:
Name columns: A = Month, B = Day, C = Year, D = Hour_ORIGINAL
Step 4 of 4:
Change the hour format WRPLOT View accepts hours in either 01-24 OR 00-23 format
but currently, we have hours reported as hour:minutes:seconds (ex: 12:00:00).
o Insert a column adjacent to the Hour_ORIGINAL column (column D); title this new
column Hour
o Manually type the following numbers into cells D2, D3, and D4, respectively: 0, 1, 2
o Use the Auto Fill option to complete the 0-23 range. These values should correspond
to the original hour column such that 12:00:00 AM is 0, and 11:00:00 PM is 23.
o Copy and paste the 0-23 value set down the remainder of column D. Visually inspect
your data sheet to ensure that the new and original hour columns correspond, and then
delete columns E and F.
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11-Windrose Diagram Exercise: WRPLOT View, Lakes Environmental

Finish your WRPLOT View-ready sheet:

Arrange your newly formatted meteorological data (Year, Month, Day, Hour) and copy
over the wind direction (deg), wind speed (m/s), and rain (in) data from the Raw Data
sheet.
Your finished WRPLOT ready spreadsheet should be arranged in the following order:
Year

Month

Day

Hour

WD_v
(deg)

WS_v
(m/s)

Rain
(in)

Once the Excel spreadsheet has been formatted correctly

1. Open WRPLOT View

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11-Windrose Diagram Exercise: WRPLOT View, Lakes Environmental

Under Toolsselect Import from Excel

NOTES:
This model accepts .xls files.
The model will import the first sheet in the spreadsheet file. Make sure that your
formatted spreadsheet (WRPLOT ready) is the first sheet.
2. Importing data from Excel, Converting to SAMSON file (see figure below)
a. Open the selected Excel File (Pechanga_WRPLOT data)
b. Save as SAMSON file (Save to Desktop; Pechanga_WRPLOT_SAM)
NOTE: Data and file management is crucial. In light of that fact, we would want to
create separate folders for different file categories (ex: Excel files for WRPLOT,
SAMSON files for WRPLOT, Graphs and Plots, Frequency Count Files) if this exercise
were to involve multiple sampling/modeling periods.

STEP 2b

STEP 2a

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11-Windrose Diagram Exercise: WRPLOT View, Lakes Environmental

3. Manually enter the column titles under Excel Column Names (ex: Year, A).

STEP 3
STEP 4

4. Change the value of First Row to Import to the number 2 so that the column names
do not get incorporated into the SAMSON file. The Last Row to Import should be
145. This indicates that we have 144 rows of data that are being imported from Excel,
which in turn corresponds to the fact that we have 6 complete days worth of hourly
data (6 x 24 = 144).
5. Check to ensure that the Unit in Excel File column indeed corresponds to the Excel
file units. For this module the units for hours are 00-23, wind speed is in meters per
second (m/s), and hourly precipitation is in inches.
6. Select a meteorological station:
o Click on the Station Information tab. There are two options (1) select an existing
station that is near to your instrument/monitoring station by clicking on Search
Stations, (2) create a user defined station using the following information: Latitude
(North), Longitude (West), Time Zone, Location.

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11-Windrose Diagram Exercise: WRPLOT View, Lakes Environmental

o For this exercise, click on the Search Stations button. Select Station #23188 (San
Diego/Lindbergh Field, CA, Lat: 32.73, Long: 117.17, Time Zone 8).
Alternative
User-defined station
a. Click on the Station Information tab
b. Click on the User-defined tab
c. Click on Add and enter the following data
Pechanga air monitoring station
Station ID: 1
City: Temecula
State: CA
Lat: 33.447867 N
Long: 117.088649 W
Time Zone: (8) Pacific
Elevation: 358 m

7. Click on the Import button; Click No when prompted with the question, Do you
want to view this file?; Close the Import Surface Data from Excel window
8. Click on Add File; Under Files of type select All Files (*.*)
Next, select the *.sam file that you created earlier on (Pechanga_WRPLOT_SAM)

9. The Wind Rose and Graph tabs correspond to the Windrose diagram and the
wind class frequency distribution graph, respectively. These files can be saved as
either bitmaps or metafiles by selecting Edit, then Copy to File.

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11-Windrose Diagram Exercise: WRPLOT View, Lakes Environmental

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11-Windrose Diagram Exercise: WRPLOT View, Lakes Environmental

Similarly, the data displayed on the Frequency Count and Frequency Distribution
tabs can be downloaded as .csv files by clicking on the download icon (see screenshot
below).

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11-Windrose Diagram Exercise: WRPLOT View, Lakes Environmental

Interpretation:
Wind direction
The reported values which range from 0-360 relate to Azimuth degrees. These values can
be translated into Cardinal directions as depicted in compass rose diagrams.
Azimuth degrees
0
90
180
270

Cardinal direction
North
East
South
West

Wind classes
Wind classes can be reported in knots or in meters per second (m/s). WRPLOT View
reports seven categories for wind speed:
Calms
0.5-2.1
2.1-3.6
3.6-5.7
5.7-8.8
8.8-11.1
11.1
Frequency distribution
The frequency distribution is reported in decimal form (ex: 0.12).

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