boxplot on noisy data

Hi,

We're making box plots of weather data, which is notoriously noisy.
Different boxes may have different numbers of observations.
But boxplot seems to demand that each box represent the same
number of values. For example, if day 1 had 5 observations
and day 2 had only 4 obs, we'd have the program:

import pylab as pb
vals = [ [1,2,3,4,5], [10,20,30,40]]
pb.boxplot( vals)
pb.show()

This gives:
Traceback (most recent call last): ...
ValueError: setting an array element with a sequence.

However, if I make the subarrays the same length:
vals = [ [1,2,3,4,5], [10,20,30,40,50]]

I get FIVE box plots (not 2)! It appears the matlab boxplot
converts vals into an array
    1 2 3 4 5
   10 20 30 40 50
and makes a box plot of each COLUMN, not row.

How can I get boxplot working with different numbers of
observations for each position?

Thanks!

Steve

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Steve Sullivan steves@...157... 303-497-2823

FL/2, Research Applications Laboratory
National Center for Atmospheric Research
PO Box 3000
Boulder CO 80307
USA