Heat waves last longer and appear more frequently and there are also more floods and torrential rains: the weather has changed and the reason is climate change. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, you can see for yourself with this map with data since 1940 or, even more devastating, this other weather map in 2080. Or better yet, discover that, for example, in Seville the weather is the same as in some areas of Zambia or northern India.
How do I know? Well, it’s not because I’ve been to any of those locations too much (three times in Seville), but because I’ve used the interactive map Climate Visualizedwhich is used to explore the weather patterns of any place on the planet using the classification of Köppen-Geiger. and find climate “brothers” throughout the world.
This project is the work of Atlas Guo, a cartographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and for its development he used the D3.js visualization tool and as a source, data from a scientific study (Beck et al. (2018)) who produced the most detailed global climate map that exists. Specifically, Guo uses the lowest resolution version (1 degree latitude per longitude), covering the period 1990-2020. From there, he turned it into an interactive and visual tool for anyone to explore.
The Köppen-Geiger classification is the most used system in geography, ecology and climatology worldwide since it was formulated back in 1884 and the data from Beck and his collaborators made an enormous leap in precision. Having them at hand in an interactive and free graphical interface is a before and after, since reading and understanding a paper is something within the reach of few people, while with this project it is opened to the general public, curious people and students.
The poster version of the project. Cartoguography
At the end of the 19th century, climatologist Wladimir Köppen had a simple but powerful idea: classify all the climates in the world according to how much it rains and how hot it is every month. The result was five large climatic zones (tropical, arid, temperate, continental and polar) with up to 30 variants. Based on this, in 2018 Beck and his team updated that system with much more precise satellite and climate data (data from ERA5 and CHELSEA), producing the most detailed global climate map available.
The study also estimates how those climate zones could change by the end of the century if emissions continue their current trend (RCP8.5 scenario), although that predictive part is not included in Guo’s web visualization. Other limitations to take into account are that it uses the lowest resolution of the study, which reduces the 30 Köppen climate types to 29 and blurs heterogeneities in coastal or mountain areas, which can be critical in more localized analyses. On the other hand, it remains in 2020, so it lacks the latest representations of climate drift.
How it works
The locations twinned with the time of Pamplona in the world. Cartoguophy
Simply hover over a location or write in the search box to find out what type of climate you have and access monthly climate graphs, which are displayed in a side menu on the left: overview, temperature and precipitation. The months appear arranged in a circle, like a clock, starting with January. Each point on the circle shows both the temperature and rainfall for that month, all in a single drawing.
In addition, that little dot is colored with a tone that you can find the same in other parts of the Earth. For example, Pamplona shares a climate with a good part of France, Belgium and Holland, but also with Melbourne, on the other side of the planet.
In Xataka | The easiest way to understand global warming, in this climate map with data from 1940
In Xataka | The temperature your city will have in 2080, simulated on this disturbing interactive map
Cover | Cartoguophy
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