This message is in response to the request for climate data for 
Danbury, CT by The Three Storms, dated 3/6/2000.  Hope this helps! 
 - C.Duvall, Rutgers Univ. Meteorologist

A. Climate and Meteorology:

Climate refers to weather happening over a certain period of time, 
usually at some point in the past and usually over one year long.  
Most climate studies attempt to find long-term patterns in the 
weather for a particular place or area.

Meteorology refers to the study of weather in general.   People 
who study the entire 100 miles or so of the atmosphere, like the 
ozone layer for example, are called atmospheric scientists.  
People who tend to study the troposphere, or the first 10 miles 
or so of the atmosphere from the ground up to the jet stream, 
are called meteorologists.

B.  Climate data:

The Danbury, CT information you are looking for would best be 
found by contacting the Connecticut State Climatologist. The 
American Association of State Climatologists lists their contact 
info. at:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/climate/aasc.html

Any information you need that is more than a couple months old 
should have been added to the national climate records at the 
National Climate Data Center.  They have FREE access to climate 
data available for anyone coming from the .edu "domain".  

Think of a "domain" as a channel that people can choose to 
access the internet.  Each "domain" is reserved for certain 
groups, and has it's own satellite signal for relaying 
information over the internet, around the world.  The most 
common domain right now is .com , which is the domain used by 
companies.  

Edu is short for Education.  Only colleges link to the internet 
through this "edu" satellite, and other schools such as yours 
usually connect to the internet using .us (as in United States) 
or another domain name.  The Climate Center web site lets anyone 
from the Edu domain access their climate data for free at:

http://www5.ncdc.noaa.gov/pubs/publications.html

Otherwise, you need to contact them.  So speak with your teacher, 
show them this message, and see how to get the information you 
want for free, either through this web site or otherwise.  
Perhaps other weather specialists will know of an easier way 
to get climate data.

C.  Weather Data:

I posted a message dated 2/22/2000 called:

** Please Read Me! **

It listed a few quick links to web sites that had good weather 
data from weather stations, satellites, radar, and more.  

There are also web sites listed in Weather Specialist messages 
that may be useful for you.  If you cannot find this message 
on the message list, or if you have questions, please let us know.  

The OneSky links are a great place to begin your search, but 
if you want, you're welcome to try the web site I created for 
our NJ weather network at:

http://climate.rutgers.edu/njwxnet/links.html

Hope this helps!

- CD 3/6/2000