Global warming, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change put it, is unequivocal. Now a group of scientists from the University of Washington, University of Southern Mississippi and the Nature Conservancy are attempting to put a finer point on that assertion, with the release of the Climate Wizard.

The Climate Wizard is an easy-to-use, plain-to-read tool that localizes climate change data down to the state level. It allows users to see temperature and precipitation projections for their home states, all the way out to the year 2100.

It’s a tricky thing, because simple 3-day weather predictions, never mind decades-out climate projections, are notoriously difficult to pin down. But the tool is based on IPCC data, which is generally accepted as the best we have available (or at least was at the time of its release two years ago. Some have said it’s overblown, while other studies have since shown the IPCC projections are too conservative).

In any case, it’s an amazing tool that renders boring blah-blah science-speak in a neat graphical format.

And if you’re skeptical about projections, check out the feature that shows PAST temperature changes. It illustrates the trend over the past 50 years, and might just be the best predictor of all. (If so, the news ain’t good. New York, for example, shows a nearly degree rise just between 1950 and 2006.)

Labels: climate wizard, predicting climate change, states' temperature rise