Climate Spiral
Articles/Websites
Grades6-APEarth and Space Sciences
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Provided by NASA
What it is
- This short video provides a visualization of monthly global temperature anomalies beginning in 1880.
- The video is accompanied by a brief text explaining the spiral and the data behind it.
Teaching tips
Positives
- This is a valuable tool to understand how quickly global average temperatures have changed in recent decades.
- Students can access the exact data used to create the spiral.
Additional Prerequisites
- Students should understand how global warming is measured (degree increase above pre-industrial levels).
- The video can be slowed down to make it easier to track the changes in the spiral over time.
Differentiation
- Have students consider what it means for humanity and the planet when the increase in temperature above pre-industrial levels surpasses 1, 1.5, and 2 degrees Celsius.
- Ask students why they think temperatures started to increase more dramatically after the mid-20th century.
- Students can use the data provided to create their own data visualizations.
- This resource can also be used in math or statistics classes during lessons about data visualization.
From the scientist review
This visualization depicts the monthly global temperature anomalies for the years 1880 to 2021. The data used for the visualization is linked and cited in the description. This is a helpful visualization to show how global temperatures have changed over the time we have had detailed weather records and the anomaly base is the one widely used. This resource is recommended for teaching.
How we review resourcesReady to use it?
Hosted on climate.nasa.gov
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