Climate Change in the US

With the Copenhagen climate talks starting this week, we felt it was fitting to examine some data on climate change at home. With data downloaded from the Met Office, we have constructed a viz that allows you to see climate change over the past century at over 50 locations nationwide. The data tells an interesting story: mousing over the trend line will show you that temperatures have risen an average of .15 degrees every decade since 1900.

The first thing that struck me about this visualization was the difference in temperature change between regions. In my native Northwest, temperatures have been rising at a rate of .06 degrees a decade - less than half the national average. However, those in New England have experienced temperature rises of .3 degrees a decade which is more than twice the national average.