One of the most accessible climate data maps possible just popped into my inbox

An example of a choropleth map showing the Black proportion of the population in shades of blue and the Hispanic proportion in shades of red, based on the 2010 Census. Creator: Bplewe. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Steven Bernard, the Financial Times’ (FT) Senior Visual Journalist, recently created one of the most beautiful climate data maps I have ever seen to illustrate the temperature anomalies that caused extreme weather events around the globe these past two months.

For obvious reasons, I can’t put the FT map on here but if you can, do take a look. It’s here (paywall).

One of the high points of Mr Bernard’s map is its accessibility because, in Mr Bernard’s words, it’s “a choropleth map”.

Say what?

He helpfully explains it as follows:

“Nerd note: a choropleth map displays geographical areas or regions that are coloured, shaded or patterned based on a data variable, such as income per capita]displays geographical areas …