Show Your Stripes! - World Meteorological Organization WMO

Show Your Stripes!

WMO is a huge supporter of the annual Show Your Stripes Day, now in its seventh year.

The event – which concides with the Northern hemisphere Summer Solstice – seeks to increase global awareness about human-caused climate change, its cascading impacts to our health and our homes, and what we as a society can do to ensure a sustainable future for the people and places we love.

“WMO endorses the call that everyone should share the famous “warming stripes”, a powerful visual representation of how temperatures have increased around the world since the industrial revolution,” says WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

“2023 was the warmest year on record globally. Extreme weather events continue to be seen more frequently around the world. Never has the need to address climate change been more urgent,” she says.

Created by an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate scientist Professor Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading, each stripe represents one year, with colours transitioning from cool blues to warm reds to represent the increases in temperature seen throughout the past 150 years or more.

On 21 June, the Show Your Stripes campaign calls on individuals, business, and cities around the world to highlight their local climate stripes and share the powerful message they convey.

Show Your Stripes Day provides a simple, yet impactful way to communicate the reality of climate change. By condensing decades of temperature data into a series of recognisable stripes, it makes understanding global warming accessible to all, from being able to recreate the stripes in schools, to sharing local stripes across social media.

The stripes have also been important for striking up global conversations and are now featured on buses, ties and other clothing items and much more!

In the past, on this day, they have been displayed in a wide range of prominent public spaces, from Times Square, New York, to the While Cliffs of Dover, UK. By displaying the stripes in locations worldwide, people have been inspired to download and share the stripes online and help spread their message.

WMO and its Members use the Show Your Stripes products from Ed Hawkins to illustrate the State of the Climate reports. WMO is also closely affiliated with Climate Central and the Climate Without Borders group of weather presenters which promotes this important campaign.