Time plot

A time plot keeps the order of the observations, which is exactly the information a histogram of the same numbers throws away. You read it for trend, for repeating seasonal patterns, and for sudden jumps or breaks. For example, monthly rainfall of 2.1, 2.4, 3.0, and 3.6 inches from January to April rises at an average of $(3.6 - 2.1) / 3 = 0.5$ inch per month. Shuffling those four points would destroy the trend while leaving the mean and standard deviation untouched.