Warming stripes explained

If you're concerned about climate, you'll love the idea of Climate Stripes!But what exactly are they?

They are data visualisation graphics that use a series of coloured stripes, each one representing a year's temperatures, chronologically ordered to visually portray long-term temperature trends.

Thursday 18th June 2020 is the day chosen for meteorologists around the world to join forces and highlight our changing climate by using Climate Stripes.

They vary slightly from region to region, but as you can see, the North West's stripes do not vary greatly from those of the whole of the UK.

Professor Ed Hawkins of the University of Reading came up with the idea of warming or climate stripes. To download and use similar graphics for virtually every country in the world, as well as for regions, visit the website www.showyourstripes.info

Follow Professor Ed Hawkins on Twitter @Ed_Hawkins and continue the climate conversation using the hashtag #ShowYourStripes and #MetsUnite.

As the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words... and you can see the trend.

2020 is on track to be one of the warmest years on record for the planet.

So watch this space...