Warming Stripes
The climate stripes were created by Professor Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading in 2018. They show clearly and vividly how global average temperatures have risen over nearly two centuries.
Each stripe represents the average temperature for a single year, relative to the average temperature over the period from 1961 to 2010. Shades of blue indicate cooler-than-average years, while red shows years that were hotter than average. The stark band of deep red stripes on the right-hand side of the graphic shows the rapid heating of our planet in recent decades.
More than a million people downloaded graphics from the site within a week of its launch in 2019. Television weather presenters, scientists and campaigners worldwide choose to wear and share the stripes on social media – using the hashtag #showyourstripes. The WMO 75th anniversary logo uses the stripes from 1950 to the current year to reflect the evolution in the climate and the increasingly urgent need for more scientific information and services as global warming intensifies.