Pandas Datetime: Get the average mean of the UFO sighting was reported

Last update on May 03 2025 13:05:22 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

17. Average Mean of UFO Sighting Reports

Write a Pandas program to get the average mean of the UFO (unidentified flying object) sighting was reported.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

import pandas as pd
#Source: https://bit.ly/32kGinQ
df = pd.read_csv(r'ufo.csv')
df['date_documented'] = df['date_documented'].astype('datetime64[ns]')
print("Original Dataframe:")
print(df.head())
# Add a new column instance, this adds a value to each instance of ufo sighting
df['instance'] = 1

# set index to time, this makes df a time series df and then you can apply pandas time series functions.
df.set_index(df['date_documented'], drop=True, inplace=True)

# create another df by resampling the original df and counting the instance column by Month ('M' is resample by month)
ufo2 = pd.DataFrame(df['instance'].resample('M').count())

# just to find month of resampled observation
ufo2['date_documented'] = pd.to_datetime(ufo2.index.values)

ufo2['month'] = ufo2['date_documented'].apply(lambda x: x.month)
print("Average mean of  the UFO (unidentified flying object) sighting was reported:")
print(ufo2.groupby(by='month').mean())

Sample Output:

Original Dataframe:
          Date_time                  city     ...       latitude   longitude
0  06-01-1910 15:00           wills point     ...      32.709167  -96.008056
1  06-11-1920 21:00                cicero     ...      40.123889  -86.013333
2  07-05-1929 14:00  buchanan  (or burns)     ...      43.642500 -118.627500
3  06-01-1931 13:00               abilene     ...      38.917222  -97.213611
4  06-01-1939 20:00              waterloo     ...      34.918056  -88.064167

[5 rows x 11 columns]
Average mean of  the UFO (unidentified flying object) sighting was reported:
       instance
month          
1      2.875000
2      2.500000
3      1.764706
4      2.250000
5      1.375000
6      1.187500
7      1.562500
8      2.062500
9      1.312500
10     1.687500
11     1.437500
12     1.562500

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a Pandas program to calculate the average number of UFO sightings per year from the dataset.
Write a Pandas program to compute the mean value of a numeric column representing UFO sighting reports.
Write a Pandas program to group UFO sightings by year and then calculate the overall mean of sightings per year.
Write a Pandas program to generate a summary of average UFO sighting counts per month or year from the DataFrame.

Go to:

Previous: Write a Pandas program to manipulate and convert date times with timezone information.
Next: Write a Pandas program to create a graphical analysis of UFO (unidentified flying object) Sightings year.

Python Code Editor:

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