Climate stripes: Dark red line added after 2023 smashed temperature records

Temperatures were so high in 2023 that a new colour could be needed to show it on the climate stripes image.

The series of vertical coloured bars offers a visual representation of how our planet is progressively heating up.

It was created by climate scientist Professor Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading, UK, in 2018.

Running from blue to a deep red, the striking image hammers home the extreme warming driven by human-caused emissions in recent years.

With global temperatures soaring to the highest level ever recorded last year, a line of the darkest red has been added to the scale. 

2023 was the warmest year on record globally by a large margin. Another dark red stripe gets added, though I think I need a new colour.#ShowYourStripespic.twitter.com/un1pNGmNmw

But Professor Hawkins says that following official confirmation of 2023’s temperatures a new colour might be needed to represent the rise.

The chart runs from 1850 - when temperature records began - to 2023. It draws on billions of pieces of scientific data on our climate.

Each stripe signifies the average temperature for a single year, relative to the average temperature over the 1971-2000 period.

“The colours used in the climate stripes are based on a scale designed to show which years are warmer and cooler than the average,” explains Professor Hawkins.

Blue shades indicate cooler-than-average years whereas red represents hotter than average years.

The scale grows rapidly red towards the right hand side of the image, showing a spike in global warming in recent decades.

This week, the UK’s Met Office confirmed 2023 as the hottest year on record for Wales and Northern Ireland and the second warmest on record for the UK overall, just behind 2022.

Europe's Climate Change Service