Application of Data Mining Techniques in Weather Prediction and Climate Change Studies

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Author(s)

Folorunsho Olaiya 1,* Adesesan Barnabas Adeyemo 2

1. Department of Computer & Information Systems, Achievers University, Owo, Nigeria

2. University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

* Corresponding author.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijieeb.2012.01.07

Received: 8 Nov. 2011 / Revised: 20 Dec. 2011 / Accepted: 14 Jan. 2012 / Published: 8 Feb. 2012

Index Terms

Weather Forecasting, Data Mining, Artificial Neural Networks, Decision Trees

Abstract

Weather forecasting is a vital application in meteorology and has been one of the most scientifically and technologically challenging problems around the world in the last century. In this paper, we investigate the use of data mining techniques in forecasting maximum temperature, rainfall, evaporation and wind speed. This was carried out using Artificial Neural Network and Decision Tree algorithms and meteorological data collected between 2000 and 2009 from the city of Ibadan, Nigeria. A data model for the meteorological data was developed and this was used to train the classifier algorithms. The performances of these algorithms were compared using standard performance metrics, and the algorithm which gave the best results used to generate classification rules for the mean weather variables. A predictive Neural Network model was also developed for the weather prediction program and the results compared with actual weather data for the predicted periods. The results show that given enough case data, Data Mining techniques can be used for weather forecasting and climate change studies.

Cite This Paper

Folorunsho Olaiya, Adesesan Barnabas Adeyemo, "Application of Data Mining Techniques in Weather Prediction and Climate Change Studies", International Journal of Information Engineering and Electronic Business(IJIEEB), vol.4, no.1, pp.51-59, 2012. DOI:10.5815/ijieeb.2012.01.07

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