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Heat Is More Than Just Temperature—Here’s How We Measure It

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Project Brief

Objective: The goal of these graphics ire to visually explain the concepts of heat index, dew point, and wet bulb temperature, showing how each relates to human comfort and safety during summer weather.


Scope: 

  • Heat Index: Visual representation of how temperature and humidity combine to affect the perceived temperature.

  • Dew Point: Illustrate the temperature at which air becomes saturated with moisture and dew forms, indicating comfort levels.

  • Metrics of Heat: Depict how various measurements account for temperature, humidity, and cooling effect to demonstrate conditions that can lead to heat-related illnesses; explain different heat alerts used to communicate the relative and absolute risks heat poses.


Team: I collected the data, both qualitative and quantitative, underpinning the various graphics, came up with the visual metaphor of hot sauce to explain different heat measurements, and created the graphics to accompany the article, which was written by Andrea Thompson. 


Data Sources: Heat Index and Dew Point data came from the NWS; Components of different measurements came from wikipedia; I originated the visual metaphor of using hot sauce to explain heat alerts. 


Links: 

Scientific American Article

Sizzing Creativity: Concocting the Hot Sauce Visual Metaphor


These were the first visualizations I made as an intern working for Scientific American. The article was pitched to me the very week I joined as a low-stress first project because it didn't have a strict publication date. However, because it was an 'evergreen' topic, the publication of the article was repeatedly bumped to give the author time to work on more pressing topics, and it appeared online about a month and half after I started and roughly a month after the graphics were finished!


I'll admit, it was an interesting first project since only one of these graphics was rooted in any real data. The heat index chart has been made and remade online, so that became more of an exercise in how to visually refine the design while maintaining consistency with all that has come before.


The other visualizations were a bit more novel, both for myself as someone who did not have a whole lot of experience with visually communicating qualitative information, and for the topic. In my research, all of the dew point metrics were communicated in text format. I didn't see any sort of visual comparison of the different heat metrics. And then the idea to also try to communicate the different types of heat alerts was my contribution - the author, Andrea, hadn't requested a graphic explaining that, but I felt it could be worthwhile. I made a draft and sent it around for approval, and the team loved it.


The dew point graphic also got a second-life in a related article about 'corn sweat' published later in the same month.


They are not the most visually-striking graphics, I know, but they'll always hold a special place in my heart.



Desktop Versions

A stylistic line chart shows the physical interpretation for the value ranges of dew point: Arid (<50 degrees Fahrenheit), Comfortable (50-60 degrees Fahrenheit), Sticky (60-75 degrees Fahrenheit), and Oppressive (>75 degrees Fahrenheit).
On the left side, a matrix showing which inputs (air temperature, relative humidity, solar irradiance, wind, pressure) are used to calculate various metrics of heat (dew point, wet bulb globe temperature, heat index). On the right side, a visual explainer of different heat alerts using hot sauce as an analogy.

A matrix graph with air temperature in degrees on the x-axis and relative humidity in percent on the y-axis. Cells in the matrix contain the Heat Index values for the combinations of temperature and humidity and are colored by the level of danger: Okay (<80 degrees Fahrenheit), Caution (80-90 degrees Fahrenheit), Extreme Caution (90-103 degrees Fahrenheit), Danger (103-124 degrees Fahrenheit), and Extreme Danger (>125 degrees Fahrenheit).


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