Wednesday June 17th… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Meteorologists Unite To Fight Climate Change…Third Anniversary Of Show Your Stripes
Dear Diary. Back on June 18th, 2017 climate scientist Ed Hawkins of Britain caused quite the stir by coming up with nice new visuals showing an overall warming trend for every location on the planet. Ed Hawkin’s “warming stripes” become a hit with meteorologists trying to convey the fact to the public that a dangerous warming trend was already underway. In 2019 and 2020 we see the stripes design on many objects like coffee cups, which are an ever present reminder that the planet has a fever.
Each stripe represents one year of climatological temperature data. The more blue the stripe the colder the year, and the redder the warmer the year. These ‘warming stripe’ graphics are visual representations of the change in temperature as measured in each country over the past 100+ years. Each stripe represents the temperature in that country averaged over a year. For most countries, the stripes start in the year 1901 and finish in 2019. For the ocean basins and for several countries with longer datasets available the stripes start in the 19th century instead. For two cities (Stockholm and Vienna), the data starts in the 18th century. Climate Central has updated stripes material and visuals for the third anniversary of this relatively new campaign. Check this out:
https://medialibrary.climatecentral.org/resources/2020-mets-unite
2020 Mets Unite
Jun 17, 2020
See full multimedia package here >>
Select by State
Find All Image Types Here (JPG & PNG)
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Find All Image Types Here (JPG & PNG)
Thursday is the third annual #MetsUnite to #ShowYourStripes. Created by climate scientist Ed Hawkins using annual temperature anomalies (the difference from long-term average), this simple blue-to-red visual has inspired communities around the world. Warming stripes have appeared on cars, murals, light shows, Economist magazines, and much more—not to mention their use by hundreds of meteorologists and climate communicators.
This year, Climate Central has updated these “stripes” graphics for the U.S. states and 160 of our 244 cities (those with 100+ years of data)–adding a stripe for 2019, the world’s second-hottest year on record. Most places show a clear warming trend, especially in fast-warming areas like the Southwest, Northeast, and Alaska. And while recent temperatures were mixed in the U.S., the world had its warmest May on record—virtually guaranteeing another top-5 year for heat. NOAA and NASA’s global temperature data is in, naming 2019 the 2nd hottest year on Earth since records began and making the 2010s the hottest decade on record.
Warming temperatures hit hardest in disadvantaged communities—with health dangers, food and water stress, coastal flooding, economic damage, and threatened ways of life. Curbing these impacts may be the greatest challenge of our time, but solutions exist from renewable energy to cleaner transportation and agriculture. Reducing emissions would limit the warming that drives those impacts—as illustrated by Alexander Radtke’s “stripes of the future”.
Local climate reporting can improve awareness, too. April polling from Yale and George Mason shows that despite the pandemic, Americans’ understanding and concern about climate change has never been higher. A majority are also interested in more climate news stories—and this is a fitting time for them.
Here’s how you can participate:
- Download and display your area’s warming stripes on air and/or social media with a message about climate change in your community. Use the hashtags #MetsUnite and #ShowYourStripes.
- Update your social accounts with warming stripes images—including a Zoom background and filters for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
- To get stripes for other countries and the oceans, go to Ed Hawkins’ site at showyourstipes.info. You can also find county stripes from scientist Jared Rennie.
- If you’d like to join your colleagues in showing “warming stripes” ties, earrings, face masks, and more on air, click here to purchase an item.
- And for even more inspiration, check out the images on Ed Hawkins’ twitter feed—from spinner and spiral animations to beer cans, shower tiling and more.
METHODOLOGY
The “warming stripes” design was conceived by Ed Hawkins, as described here. Stripes for stations and states are based on the anomaly from the 20th century average. For a subset of locations where there was no data until after 1901, the anomaly is based on the oldest 100-year average available for that city. Stations with less than 100 years of data were not included. Station data is from RCC-ACIS and state data is from NCDC Climate at a Glance.
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We saw one major “ET” yesterday with extreme conditions in the West:
Here is more climate and weather news from Wednesday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)
Now here are some of today’s articles and notes on the horrid COVID-19 pandemic:
(As usual, the most noteworthy items will be listed first.)
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Guy Walton “The Climate Guy”