Interactive Map Shows How The World's Climate is Changing

How has the climate changed in specific world locations? And will knowing this help us make better future-oriented climate decisions?

Tomasz Stepinski has provided answers. A professor of geography at the University of Cincinnati, Stepinski has just published an interactive map that contains up to fifty years of climate data taken from some 50,000 weather stations across the globe.

The map was designed for use by scientists and by the general public. Named ClimateEx, it provides information on locations' precipitation and temperature, then lets users see how those numbers have changed over time. The areas with the biggest recent changes in climate? The arctic and the equator.

"ClimateEx is mostly an educational tool," says Pawel Netzel, who collaborated on the project. "Using ClimateEx, it's easy to get answers to questions such as where in the world do we have a climate similar to Houston's? Where can I find a place with a climate as pleasant as Florida's?"

The map also shows the degree of similarity between a given location's climate change and the changes undergone almost anywhere else in the world. Such comparisons can be invaluable for people interested in how climate change relates to geographical factors.

Further, ClimateEx details which areas have recently experienced the greatest amounts of climate change. And this, Netzel says, will help predict where extreme weather events – hurricanes, tornadoes and such – will occur.

"The user simply indicates the location where tornadoes are presently frequent and ClimateEx finds all locations where in 50 years the climate will be conducive to tornadoes," he says. "Knowledge about the possibility of hazards will give city planners time to prepare appropriate response plans."

ClimateEx, Stepinski says, was designed for ease of use, and offers non-scientists many practical applications. These might include providing guidance on where to take a vacation or, if you're considering a relocation, where to move. But it harbors other, perhaps more urgent, messages.

"If you see dramatic changes [in climate] on the order of a few decades, it's a big problem," Stepinski says. "I'm not happy there are people who seem to disregard this. It is a problem."

ClimateEx is online at: http://sil.uc.edu/webapps/climateex

--By  Rob Salazar