Tempestry Revisited

Tempestry's Color Palette

The Tempestry Project is not a new concept to me. I wrote about it a little over a year ago and that post gives a great overview of what it is.

For those of you who are curious, here's the short story:

A tempestry is a temperature tapestry that is either knitted or crocheted, using a very specific color palette tied to temperature data from NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration). Each line of the tapestry details either the day in one year or the average yearly temperature in a block of years. The standardization of the colors makes it possible to globally compare the climate data via this visual display.

One of my most meaningful birthday gifts a few weeks ago was from an eco-minded friend of mine who is skilled in the fiber arts. Opening the box delivered in the mail revealed my very own Tempestry!

I still look at it a bit stunned and blown away by all of it--the meaningfulness of the gift, the time it took her to make it (knowing my li'l eco-self would love it), and the data that it reveals. Additionally, as news just came out this week, 2019 is on track to be the Earth's 2nd or 3rd hottest year on record. (According to NOAA's records, 2015 gets the "honor" of being #1.) As I texted my dear friend and Tempestry creator, looks like we'd be adding another row of Garnet...making this gift more timely than ever.

My Tempestry is similar to Ed Hawkins' "Warming Stripes" image below. Both show the Annual Global Temperatures from 1880--2018. In mine above, an up-close look shows the decade tabbed by the side and all 138 years of recorded data. Not only is this Tempestry visually striking, it's eye-opening as it clearly shows the warming of our planet.

Interestingly, the Tempestry Project was born in 2016--the same year that Ed Hawkins created the "Warming Stripes" visualization of Annual Global Temperatures. The Warming Stripes page from Ed Hawkin's Climate Lab Book website has several Warming Stripes pictures. It is fascinating to compare other visual data from a variety of locations.

I will say, I like my fiber arts version of warming stripes the best of all. 😉 For those of you who want to do a deep dive in the numbers of the average temperature, the climate data/color chart for my tempestry is available on The Tempestry Project's website. ❤️🧡💛💙



Images from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tempestry_Project#/media/File:Color_Card_F_and_C.jpg and the collage I made from my own Tempestry gift.  "Warming Strips" image from https://showyourstripes.info