Your Personal Temperature Colors and Descriptors (climate, snow, hot, warm)

[Patricius Maximus]

This blog post from Watts Up With That* plus my own musings have led me to create this thread which hopefully will provide some interesting insights. This comment perhaps best reflects the "cultural" differences between different people and the temperature scales they create:

My first thought was “you can tell who made these”.

NOAA was made by someone from the southwest, maybe a Texan. Why? Because they don’t show warm weather as hot (face it, y’all, if it’s under 90, it’s cool outside).

Unisys and WeatherUnderground have to be made by Alaskans. They are worthless in the summer, but display ranges of cold.

I don’t think it’s deliberate, but more of a reflection of culture and what they consider normal.

In this thread I'd like for each of us to create our own temperature scale with descriptors, based on what we would consider "standard" on a generic basis, i.e. nothing tailored for one specific climate, but one you would make that would apply generally. I'd like for us to share our own colors for temperature as well as the descriptions for certain ranges, such as "chilly", "cold", "very cold", "hot", et cetera. If you're still not sure what you're supposed to post here just follow my example.

My own temperature scale with colors is as follows:



Text backup in case of link rot:

Spoiler

Above 120F: Torrid (R34,G0,B0)
110 to 120F: Extremely hot (R58,G0,B0)
100 to 110F: Excessively hot (R88,G0,B0)
90 to 100F: Very hot (R192,G0,B0)
80 to 90F: Hot (R255,B0,G0)
70 to 80F: Very warm (R255,G192,B0)
60 to 70F: Warm (R255,G255,B0)
50 to 60F: Mild (R204,G102,B0)
40 to 50F: Cool (R146,G208,B80)
30 to 40F: Chilly (R115,G190,B211)
10 to 30F: Cold (R0,G112,B192)
10 to -20F: Very cold (R112,G48,B160)
-20 to -40F: Bitterly cold (R214,G0,B147)
Below -40F: Brutally cold (R255,G102,B153)

*Yes, I know Watts Up With That is a somewhat biased anti-AGW website (like some pro-AGW websites too) but that particular piece should hold interest for any weather enthusiast or graphics designer.

Also another note: NOAA's map changes with the seasons. In winter all the labels are shifted 40 degrees colder than this summer map example. So don't think that any temperatures below 20F are indistinguishable.

On a tangent, in the blog post which one of the maps strikes you as the best color scale? I like The Weather Channel's the best.

[RWood]

So for those of us who don't generally mess around with these things, a simple way of replicating the table structure ready for updates is needed. My table would be in degC, with fewer divisions for other reasons as well.

[CairoCanadian]

Brown disturbs me there - I feel it ought to be dark green for the 40s; light green for the 50s. Otherwise your chart fits me fine. Though, I'd move up the word descriptions by one on each category, while keeping the colors the same.

[euclideanspace]

My scale would have finer divisions since I'm used to live in tame temperatures year round.

Something like:

35°C+ Torrid (Bright red)
31-35°C Very hot (Red)
26-30°C Hot (Orange/Red)
23-25°C Warm (Orange)
17-22°C Mild (Yellow)
13-16°C Cool (White)
8-12°C Cold (Light Blue)
8°C - ...I experience that so few times a year, and mostly when I'm sleepy at 6am that I won't label it as "brutally cold".

[dhdh]

40°C+ Torrid (never enjoyable)

34 to 40°C Sultry (enjoyable on a few rare occasions)

--- Comfort zone below

30 to 34°C Hot (very likely to be enjoyable, except if too dry and windless)

25 to 30°C Warm (always enjoyable)

20 to 25°C Lukewarm (always enjoyable)

--- Comfort zone above

15 to 20°C Mild (enjoyable on a few occasions, such as after a very hot day, if not too dry and not too windy)

8 to 15°C Cool (almost never enjoyable)

0 to 8°C Cold (never enjoyable)

-5°C to 0°C Freezing (rarely acceptable, unless very occasional with snow)

-12°C to 5°C Frigid (never enjoyable)

<-12°C Extremely cold (painful)

[Weatherfan2]

This works for me quite well. It is suited to the climate I am used to living in. It describes how those temperatures feel to me, and is the same outdoors as indoors.



Going by that definition the mean temperature of all days this June has failed to get into the "mild" category, so every day has been either cold or cool. Utterly pathetic but there we are. Only one day's maximum has got into the "moderate" or "room temperature" category - likewise pathetic. In fact the avg high this June is only at the cool/mild boundary so this has truly been a cold month.

[Bottletree]

This is not accurate IMO because it depends on what you are used to/ what season you are in. If you get a 40 degree temp in January it is easily t-shirt weather. But if you got it in July then it is quite cold.

The same cannot be said for heat though, I went somewhere warm (temps of 80s) in January and as soon as I got out of the airport it did not feel hot but just right.

45C & up: extremely hot
40 to 45C: very hot
35 to 40C: hot
30 to 35C: quite warm
20 to 30C: ideal
15 to 20C: lower than ideal
10 to 15C: cool
5 to 10C: quite cool
0 to 5C: cold
-5 to 0C: very cold
-10 to -5C: freezing
-15 to -10C: frigid

This above chart is for an acclimatized July perspective, the values would greatly change if I were to write in in a January perspective.

Also this chart does not take into account humidity levels.

Anyone agree?

[Patricius Maximus]

Interesting. And JetsNHL, if there is an irreconcilable discrepancy between winter and summer for you, you could always post two scales.

[dunno what to put here]

[Bottletree]

Ok here is from a January perspective:


With above 10C values all the same:

5 to 10C: warm
0 to 5C: warm
-5 to 0C: mild
-10 to -5C: cool
-15 to -10C: chilly
-20 to -15C: cold
-25 to -20C: quite cold
-30 to -25C: very cold
-35 to -30C: freezing
-40 to -35C: frigid

It is much easier to adjust to the heat than the cold.