Creating a Climograph in Excel

This method is a modified version of a method presented on the National Geographic XPEDITIONS web site.

1. In cell A1, type the name of the location.
2. Beginning in cell B2 and working across row B, label each cell, in ascending order, with the first letter of the month’s name.
3. Enter the word Precipitation in cell A3.
4. Enter the monthly amounts of precipitation in cells B3 through M3.
5. Enter the word Temperature in cell A4.
6. Enter the monthly average temperatures in cells B4 through M4.
7. Save the spreadsheet with a name of your choosing.
8. Select cells A2 through M4. With these cells selected, choose Chart from the Insert menu.
9. In the Chart Wizard that appears, select the Custom Types tab. Scroll down the choices and select Line – Column on 2 Axes. Click Next.
10. In the next dialog box titled Chart Source Data, click Next.
11. On the following dialog box, in the box for Chart Title, type in the name of the location. In the box for Value (Y) Axis, type Precipitation. In the bottom box for Secondary Value (Y) Axis, type Temperature and then click Next.
12. In the next dialog box, choose to display the chart As new sheet. Then click Finish. Your chart will be displayed in a new sheet. Save it immediately.
13. Double click on the temperature plot in the chart. In the Format Data Series dialog box click on the Patterns tab. Then, under Line choose the thickest weight. Under Marker change the size to 12. Now click OK.
14. Double click on the left y-axis. In the Format Axis dialog box click on Scale. Then, change the Maximum to 15 and click OK.
15. Now you should have a nicely formatted climograph for your station.
16. You can change various attributes of your climograph by double clicking on the axes, plots, and background. You can check this out, if you want to make your climograph more attractive.
17. MAKE SURE YOU SAVE THE CHART WHEN YOU ARE DONE!