Temperature Guide for Weather Maps

Section 1

The Color Scale

If you're going to use colors, use these. Fixed to absolute values - not relative to whatever range happens to be on screen. Red starts at 40°C.

Royal Blue −10° #1d4ed8

Bright Blue 0° #2563eb

Steel Blue 5° #0ea5e9

Sky Blue 10° #38bdf8

Pale Blue 15° #7dd3fc

comfort ↓ Light Green 20° #86efac

comfort ↑ Yellow-Green 25° #a3e635

Amber 30° #fcd34d

Orange 35° #f97316

Red 40° #ef4444

Dark Red 45° #b91c1c

Maroon 50°+ #7f1d1d

Comfort zone (20–25°C): If you're using colors, this range must be green. Never orange, never red. That's kind of the whole point.

Section 2

The Problem

25°C in Germany. A perfectly fine day. Open a weather app that uses colors, and the whole country looks like this:

✗ Non-compliant (typical)

25°C rendered as an emergency The entire country in blood red. Is this hell?

✓ Compliant

25°C rendered accurately Yellow-green. Warm but pleasant. Nobody panics.

Colors on a map carry meaning. Red means danger. If you choose to use them, 25°C in red makes people panic at a beach day - and when 45°C actually arrives, the scale has nowhere left to go. Just show the numbers if you don't want to deal with this. But if you use colors, they should mean something.

Climate change is real. This is not a debate about that, it's about trust. If you show a mild spring day in blood red, people notice - and when they notice, they stop trusting the messenger. Crying wolf at 23°C doesn't help anyone take 45°C seriously.

Some epic levels of fear mongering by putting the color scale of red already at 23°C / 73°F which is lukewarm

This is why people don't trust scientists anymore, they have agendas and can be intellectually dishonest to make their point https://t.co/63x3PEF3vz pic.twitter.com/mKuU54dyKM
— @levelsio (@levelsio) May 22, 2026