Global Burning

The Pudding has released another stunning data visualization story. Mapping Record-High Heat in U.S. Cities is an interactive map which shows how many days since your city recorded its record high temperature (for today or of all time).

July was the hottest month on Earth in the last 120,000 years. This followed the hottest June ever recorded. Global Heating is happening, which is why The Pudding's map shows a lot of American cities have recorded their hottest ever temperatures this summer. 

If The Pudding's map, or your own lived experience, doesn't convince you that climate change is occurring then you can also explore your city's heat records for yourself on The Pudding's Tracking Heat Records in 400 U.S. Cities. This data story allows you to explore 134 years of recorded high temperatures in your city to see how these have changed over time.

Americans should by now be getting used to record high temperatures. During the course of last year's summer over 7,000 daily temperature records were smashed in the United States. This led the Washington Post to visualize where temperature records were broken during the summer of 2022. 

The animated map in the Post's Maps Show Extreme Heat visualizes where daily temperature records were broken from June 1 through September 7, 2022. Daily temperature records are broken when the highest ever temperature is recorded at a weather station on a specific calendar date. As you can tell from the animated map above the heat last year came in waves. 

You can also see that record temperatures were set in locations across the whole of the country. Heat-waves struck at different times in different parts of the country but no parts of the country escaped last year's record heat entirely.