If you tune in to a TV weather report today, you might notice the meteorologist wearing a unique striped tie or necklace.
West Palm Beach broadcast meteorologist Jeff Berardelli with the graphic used in Thursday's #MetsUnite campaign. Jeff Berardelli
If you tune in to a TV weather report on today's Northern hemisphere summer solstice, you might notice the meteorologist wearing a unique striped tie or necklace that begins in blue and changes to red.
This isn't just a fun summer style. The design is actually University of Reading climate scientist Ed Hawkin's "Warming Stripes" visualization, which represents the change in annual global temperatures from 1850 to 2017. Nearly 100 TV meteorologists are displaying it in some way on Thursday as part of Meteorologists United on Climate Change or #MetsUnite, Weather Underground reported.
#MetsUnite was launched by Jeff Berardelli, a meteorologist with CBS12 (WPEC) in West Palm Beach, Florida.
"The message is simple: humans have become a force of nature. Our influence on the climate matches or exceeds the impact of natural variations. It's real. It's us. It's serious. And while the public opinion ship has veered in a favorable direction, we need an abrupt pivot, right now, to avoid the worst impacts of the iceberg called climate change," he told Weather Underground.
Berardelli was especially inspired by the communication potential of the Warming Stripes design. "I saw Ed Hawkins Warming Stripes pattern and the simplicity resonated with me. It is our job as meteorologists and station scientists to explain weather and climate in simple, memorable terms," Berardelli told former American Meteorological Society president Dr. Marshall Shepherd for a Forbes opinion piece.
