Short explainers that make the data on Meridian readable — no jargon, no fear, sources always visible.
An anomaly is the difference from normal for that place and time of year. +2 °C in January means 2 °C warmer than a typical January there — not 2 °C absolute. Anomalies make climate signals visible where raw values would hide them.
An observation is a measurement that already happened. A forecast is a model's estimate of what may happen, always with uncertainty. Meridian labels every number as one or the other — if you ever see them blurred, that's a bug.
▲ Extreme, ◆ Severe, ● Moderate, ○ Minor — mapped from source data (for earthquakes: M7+, M6+, M5.3+). Shape plus colour plus word, so the scale works for colour-blind readers and grayscale prints.
Public science agencies: USGS (earthquakes), NASA (Earth observation), NOAA (ocean and climate), national met services worldwide. Meridian aggregates and explains — the measurements are theirs, and every panel credits them.
The tropical Pacific is a bathtub the size of a planet. Trade winds normally push its warmest water toward Asia and Australia. Every few years the winds weaken and the warm water sloshes back east — that's El Niño. When the winds strengthen and the east runs cold, that's La Niña.
Why should anyone outside the Pacific care? Because that warm pool is a heat engine for the whole atmosphere. Move it, and rainfall moves with it — monsoons shift, some regions flood, others dry out, hurricane seasons change character.
Scientists track it with one number: the ONI, the temperature anomaly of a patch of ocean called Niño 3.4. Above +0.5 °C for long enough → El Niño. Below −0.5 °C → La Niña. Meridian's ENSO tracker shows that number, where it's heading, and what it may mean for your region — in likelihoods, never guarantees.
What should Meridian explain better — or build next? (Stored locally in this demo; the production form sends it privately to the team. No public email addresses, no spam.)