For field or building-wide surveys, our practice is to supplement the spatial data gathered across the site with data from (at least) one location gathered over time. This really helps illustrate how much of the observed variability in the spatial data might actually be due to temporal variability. But interpreting these data isn't intuitive for some people.

Timescale is an important parameter in considering vibration impacts. And while there are technical reasons to consider timescale (is my apparatus even sensitive to milli-second-scale excursions? what are the chances that I'm even doing something sensitive at the moment when the transient occurs?) economic and practical considerations can be just as important. If your lab executes experiments that take huge budgets and months of planning to pull off, then even rare events might be a real threat, if only because the consequences of failure (however unlikely) are so dire.