Student Research Reports

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How can surface temperature affect precipitation, and what would that mean for our warming planet? When temperatures rise, evaporation increases, which in turn creates more precipitation. This was the basis for our hypothesis that as surface temperature rises, so will precipitation. We collected surface temperature on turf, grass, and asphalt using an Etekcity infrared thermometer. We used a ruler to measure the amount of precipitation, and after creating two graphs we found that our hypothesis was incorrect. Our data suggested that as temperatures dropped, precipitation increased. Based on other studies we found with similar procedures, we concluded that one of our main sources of error was our small sample size, with only one day we recorded containing precipitation. Throughout our experiment, we learned many things about climate change and how it could affect major weather events such as hurricanes and floods and are excited to see what studies like ours could uncover in the future.