Canadian weather maps were not changed to exaggerate global warming

Gwen Roley / AFP Canada
Fri, August 18, 2023 

Social media users are sharing two Canadian weather maps that use different colors to illustrate similar temperatures, claiming the hues were changed between 2018 and 2022 to exaggerate global warming. This is misleading; the meteorologist featured in the images told AFP he temporarily used software with another color scheme after his computer crashed.

"I guess a 'red hot' 19 degrees in 2021 is warmer than a green 20 degree day from four years ago," says the caption of an August 14, 2023 Facebook post with more than 2,400 shares.

The post includes a photo with two screenshots of weather reports in Canada.

The first forecast, dated July 9, 2018, illustrates temperatures ranging from nine to 29 degrees Celsius (about 48 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit) with green and yellow. The second map, labeled "July 26," uses red and orange to shade in areas with temperatures between 12 and 27C (about 54 to 81F).


The photo comparison circulated elsewhere on Facebook with the same caption. Similar claims have spread online since at least summer 2022 -- including a post from Alberta Legislative Assembly Member Todd Loewen, who has since become the province's minister of forestry, parks and tourism.

Screenshot of a Facebook post taken August 18, 2023

Screenshot of a Facebook post taken August 18, 2023

"Could this be the media pushing a government agenda?" says an August 10, 2022 post with the photo on Twitter, which is being rebranded as "X."

AFP has previously fact-checked claims that meteorology reports in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany were manipulated to exaggerate the severity of global warming. The posts about Canada are similarly misleading.

Peter Quinlan, a Global News meteorologist who appears in both screenshots, told AFP the colors vary between the photos because he had to use weather mapping software with different palette settings for a week in 2018.

"My computer just crashed one week," said Quinlan, who is based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. "Then I had to use my colleague's computer to complete my weathercasts. And back then they happened to have a different temperature color contour on their national temperature map."

In 2018, Global News meteorologists selected their own palettes for forecasts, he said. But by the end of 2022, the company standardized the colors.

A reverse image search reveals the second photo in the posts is a screenshot from a July 26, 2022 Global News broadcast (archived here).

Quinlan's forecast from July 9, 2018 (archived here) does feature cooler colors. But similar videos from June and August of that year show deeper oranges and reds -- similar to those in the 2022 broadcast (archived here and here).

This screenshot taken August 18, 2023 shows a June 8, 2018 Global News broadcast featuring Peter Quinlan

This screenshot taken August 18, 2023 shows a July 9, 2018 broadcast in which Quinlan used mapping software with different color settings

This screenshot taken August 18, 2023 shows an August 8, 2018 broadcast in which Quinlan returned to using his own software

This screenshot taken August 18, 2023 shows a July 26, 2022 Global News broadcast

When the screenshots first circulated in 2022, Quinlan responded to social media inquiries about the color change with the same explanation about his computer (archived here).

"They just posted it and said, 'this is the narrative' or 'this was the reason why' -- that we were trying to really draw attention to warming or whatever it may be," Quinlan told AFP. "So, I just felt like I needed to address it at least once so that people would have that."
Scientific consensus

Most scientists agree climate change is to blame for more extreme weather events (archived here).

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in its most recent report (archived here) that human activities have "unequivocally" caused global warming. July 2023 was the hottest month on record, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

A 2019 report from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) concluded the country is seeing more climate change effects as it warms at a faster rate (archived here).

"Observed changes in temperature extremes indicate that warm events are becoming more intense and more frequent, while cold events are becoming less intense and less frequent," said Eleni Armenakis, an ECCC spokeswoman, in an email on August 18, 2023.

In 2021, Canada recorded its hottest temperature ever at 49.6C (121F) in Lytton, British Columbia -- a town that was decimated by a wildfire days after the record was set.

The province faced another severe heatwave in summer 2023. Other parts of the country, including the Northwest Territories capital of Yellowknife, were evacuated due to wildfire threats.

More of AFP's reporting on climate change misinformation is available here.