Adam Lesser

Using big data to map climate change

[Commentary] When I think about climate change and biological systems in general, I tend to think not in terms of the mere warming of the planet but in terms of balance/stability versus volatility/anomaly.

When we see Hurricane Sandy and attempt to draw a connection to climate change, what we’re concerned about is not the warming of the planet by itself but anomalous and volatile weather.

To that end, the folks at Enigma labs have mined the last two centuries of daily weather data to produce expected daily normal high and low temperatures. They’ve then mapped the last 50 years of data against that data to produce a compelling graphic indicating that daily weather behavior is getting more anomalous.