Thread by @aidanweather

I’ve seen this ridiculous comparison a lot on social media during the last few days

I created the Met Office temperature colour scale with help from a colleague

That’s why I know:
- The image on the right is doctored
- Met Office graphics are not designed to cause fear
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How do I know it’s doctored?

We had a graphics redesign early this year

We changed the map view, temperature symbols & colour scale etc

This image uses the old map view, the old symbols but not the old temperature colours

Here’s how the old scale looked at 30-34 C

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Even when record-breaking heat was predicted in the past, we had oranges and reds on the maps and nothing resembling the image in the first post

This is from the forecast ahead of the record-breaking temperature in 2019:

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Unfortunately, the old scale (which used a mixture of blues, greens, oranges, reds) wasn’t accessible for people like me who are colourblind

So, we changed the temperature colours to make the maps easier for people who are colourblind like me

That’s it, no conspiracy

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Here’s the new colour scale during a typical UK hot spell (same temperature numbers as the image in the first post)

No dark reds and blacks

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The new temperature colour scale does go darker when it gets hotter (especially >38.7 C, the UK record)

It also goes darker when it gets colder

That works better for people who are colour blind – variations in light / dark rather than hue

Old (left) vs new (right):

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When we designed the new colours, in Autumn 2021, only parts of the Middle East and North Africa were >39 C

I thought these temperatures would turn up occasionally in Spain in the summer

I never expected them to appear on UK maps

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By the way, we do still sometimes post happy sunshiny maps on social media

But, most of the time, we use data-driven maps rather than weather symbols

We’ve been doing this for years. Here’s an example from earlier last week. I’m even smiling in this sunny weather forecast

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