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Meteorologists highlight Earth’s stark, dramatic warming

"We are the scientists that the TV public sees."

Mark Kaufman

on June 18, 2020

Meteorologists highlight Earth’s stark, dramatic warming

2020 will be one of the hottest years on record.

Meteorologists, who provide your increasingly accurate weather forecasts (sometimes astonishingly accurate), know Earth’s heating trend has been accelerating for the past 40 years. On Thursday, TV meteorologists organized on air and online to demonstrate a stark visualization of the planet’s warming, by showing "warming stripes."

Using data collected by NASA, NOAA, and other research agencies, climate scientist Ed Hawkins created the ability for anyone to see warming trends for the world overall, or for their country or state. (Red stripes show above average temperatures and blues show below average.)

Global warming stripes. Credit: ed Hawkins

“It might not feel like it if you’re stuck in the rain today, but temperatures around the world are continuing to rise,” Aidan McGivern, a UK Met office meteorologist, said online Thursday morning.

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(Yes, the planet is warming, even if it's been cooler this year, regionally, where you live).

TV meteorologists are increasingly using their role as visible, public scientists to explain climate change to their viewers.

"We are the scientists that the TV public sees," Bob Lindmeier, a Wisconsin forecaster for more than 30 years, told Mashable last year. "For most of them, we’re the only scientists they have any connection with."

Nineteen of the last 20 years are now the warmest on record globally. This is a reaction to the carbon dioxide emissions amassing in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas that can live in the atmosphere for 300 to 1,000 years, traps heat. Earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are now skyrocketing: CO2 levels haven't been this high in at least 800,000 years — though more likely millions of years. What's more, carbon levels are now rising at rates that are unprecedented in both the geologic and historic record.

Here are meteorologists showing warming stripes in 2020, the third year forecasters have banded together to demonstrate how human activity has disrupted the planet's climate.

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Mark Kaufman

Science Editor

Mark was the science editor at Mashable. After working as a ranger with the National Park Service, he started a reporting career after seeing the extraordinary value in educating people about the happenings on Earth, and beyond.

He's descended 2,500 feet into the ocean depths in search of the sixgill shark, ventured into the halls of top R&D laboratories, and interviewed some of the most fascinating scientists in the world.