Climate change: World now sees twice as many days over 50C
BBC research finds the number of days passing 50C has doubled in the past 40 years. …
What do we mean by ‘location’?
A location refers to an individual area of the globe about 25 sq km.
Climate data is typically presented in gridded squares that make up a large area.
The grids in this dataset are 0.25 degrees latitude by 0.25 degrees longitude.
Locations displayed on the map above are those where the maximum temperature in a grid area went above 50C on a given day that year.
How do the circles represent days?
The size of the circle plotted on the map relates to the number of days per year that crossed 50C at that specific location.
The circles range in size from 1 to 25 days.
When all years are represented, the circles show the total number of days over 50C at each point. The scale remains capped at 25 days for legibility.
Where is the data from?
This analysis uses maximum daily temperatures from the global ERA5 dataset, produced by the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Climate data is typically presented in gridded squares that make up a large area. Although each grid can contain different topographies, the data treats each grid area uniformly.
ERA5 combines weather observations from many sources, such as stations and satellites, with data from weather forecasting models.
This process fills in gaps created by poor station coverage in many parts of the world.
About The Author
