Australia needed new colors to show the forecast heatwave on their temperature map (they’ve since revised predictions down to 122ºF/50ºC). Image courtesy Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology

What happens when a changing climate exceeds the operating parameters of the stuff we own? While we in the northern hemisphere make jokes about indestructible snow forts, it is getting hot in Australia. How hot? So hot that Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology had to add new colors to its weather map. Now, those unfortunate parts of Australia that achieve temperatures above 122ºF (50ºC) — temperatures that were, until recently, literally off the scale — will be marked in deep purple and terrifying hot pink. It is an interesting moment in data visualization history when climate scientists find themselves in the position of revising the upper bounds of temperatures they ever expected to depict.

Not good. Photo by Aaron Straup Cope

The move is a result of predictions of upcoming record temperatures, following an already seven-day record-breaking heatwave that’s brought with it more than a hundred wildfires and a “catastrophic“ danger to some of the most populous parts of the country. Let’s put that in a different perspective. In Sydney, temperatures reached 108ºF (42ºC) yesterday. According to Apple, that’s too hot to safely use your iPhone (they want you to keep it under 95ºF or 35ºC) and edging into being too hot to own an iPhone (113ºF or 45ºC).

A couple years ago, after a series of massive snow storms in the United States, The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal reflected on the prospects of cities as they find themselves in a new world. “What you need to know is that your city — pretty much wherever it is — was built for a climate that it may no longer have. That’s going to mean tough commutes during the winter and spending more money on air conditioning in the summer. It’s going to mean that your city shuts down more often because some freaky thing happened that no one can remember happening in their lifetimes.”

In Australia, these record-breaking temperatures raise the prospect of gadgets designed for a climate that they may no longer have, either. They already had to redesign the map.

Link to Wired Magazine article below.