This visualisation of temperatures in Lancashire (UK) shows annual mean data from 1754-2015. The long-term warming trend is clear, with variability from year to year, and some temporary cooler periods due to large volcanic eruptions. The average of the 19th century (black line) separates the warm and cold colours.
Continue reading Lancashire temperatures, visualised
Click image for full size version (warning: 10MB)
The visualisation technique of ‘small multiples’ is often used to communicate a simple message. The above example shows maps of temperature change from 1850-2016 – the overall warming trend is obvious even though the details are fuzzy. Continue reading Mapping global temperature change
Updates to this animation are now available
Regular readers will be aware of the #endrainbow campaign to reduce the use of rainbow colour palettes in scientific figures. At the recent EGU conference, I gave a talk on ‘making better figures’, which included an example of a published conclusion which was incorrect due to the use of a rainbow colour scheme. Continue reading Why rainbow colour scales can be misleading
The Earth hasn’t always been struggling with global warming. Around 34 million years ago at the Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT) the Earth was undergoing a period of global cooling. This significant shift in climate led to the formation of the first permanent ice sheets of the Cenozoic Era over Antarctica, as shown by the dramatic shift (in a geologic sense) in the oxygen isotope records [1]. The cooling, likely a result of declining atmospheric carbon dioxide levels but potentially also coinciding with Southern Ocean gateway changes, turned Antarctica from a green forested continent to the land of ice we know today. This is illustrated with an image of how this world might have looked.
Guest post by Alan Kennedy, University of Bristol Continue reading A world before ice
Below is a simple example of using different colour maps to show the same UK mean temperature data for both normal vision and a simulation of colour blindness.
Viridis is a new colour map developed for Python (MATLAB code here) with lots of nice features, including removal of artificial perceptual boundaries which jet suffers from.
Which do you prefer?
[This post continues our #endrainbow campaign to reduce use of ‘rainbow’ colour scales like jet.]
The largest impacts of increases in temperature will not be experienced due to changes in the mean, but by changes in the extremes. This is illustrated using UK heatwaves to show that the number of days which will require preventative action will increase by roughly a factor of 6 for a 2ºC increase in summer temperatures. Continue reading Extreme UK heatwaves
