Warming & Precipitation Stripes

_{Source: German Weather Service, processed by LANUV NRW}

The climate scientist Ed Hawkins developed a simple but concise symbolization to visualize climate change. The so-called "Warming & Precipitation Stripes" or "Temperature and Precipitation Stripes" visualize the warming and weather trends on our planet for the years 1881-2023 in a simple and impressive way. Each stripe pattern represents the mean annual temperature or mean precipitation of a year for a specific location or region, with colors ranging from blue (for cooler temperatures or years with high precipitation) to red (for warmer temperatures or relative drought). The progressive global warming is thus clearly visible at a glance. The data is plotted chronologically since the start of measurement. The individual years are shown as color-coded stripes, with the coldest year appearing in dark blue and the warmest in dark red. For North Rhine-Westphalia, the range extends from the minimum annual average temperature of 7.4 °C, which occurred in 1888, to the maximum of 11.2 °C, which was reached in 2023. It is easy to see that the red stripes have increased in recent decades. The years 1881-2023 are currently shown.

The following values are to be mentioned for Hilden:

• Coldest year 1888 with 8.5 °C
• Warmest year 2023 with 12.2 °C
• Driest year 1921 with 516 mm of precipitation
• Wettest year 1966 with 1152 mm of precipitation