"When temperatures do odd things...": How this map reveals a warning for the climate

No matter how you display it, for decades climate data has conveyed the clear and consistent trend of a rapidly warming Earth. But how a climate scientist chooses to visualize that data can really help to communicate vital clues about the climate system.

Recently, Ed Hawkins, the professor who created the now famous Warming Stripes visualization (read more about that here), from the University of Reading in the U.K., tweeted out a clever and eye-opening map, with shades of red and blue representing the amount of warming relative to other parts of the Earth.  Hawkins' color scheme focuses the eye on a few key spots with an important story to tell.