Figures 1 and 2 are our participation in this year’s Show your Stripes Day (20 June 2026). This movement, initiated by Professor Ed Hawkins from the University of Reading, aims to start a conversation about the climate crisis and our warming planet by providing a simple but impactful visual representation of temperature change.

As we are focused on the ocean, our stripes show temperature in the ocean interior over the past 20 years in two different depth ranges. 
 
Figure 1 shows, from 2007 to the present, the integrated ocean temperature between depths of 700 and 2000 m in the ocean around Australia (regional boundaries show in Figure 3). The stripes show a consistent warming of these sub-surface waters, with rapid warming in the later period. 
 
Figure 2 is the same as in Figure 1, but integrated between the surface and 2000 m depth. The inclusion of the upper 700 m makes the seasonal cycle of ocean temperature evident, with blue and red stripes alternating as winters and summers come and go. The red stripes becoming thicker and more intense over time – indicating longer and stronger warm conditions in the ocean.

Changes in ocean temperature vary not only in depth but also across the region, as shown in Figure 3, adapted from the State of the Climate 2024 Report. This figure shows the decadal trend in ocean heat content in the upper 2000 m of the ocean from 2007 to 2024. The greatest heat uptake happening at the southern part of the domain, i.e., the Tasman Sea and in the Southern Ocean, south of Australia. 

This warming trend is also seen in the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) in regional maps of OceanCurrent. For example, in Tasmania (Figure 4), SST anomalies have been consistently positive since the winter of 2020. Similar patterns are seen in the Great Barrier Reef, Southern New South Wales, and the Northwest Shelf.

If you look at these figures and feel solastagia, you are not alone.

If you too want to #ShowYourStripes, visit the official website and see how atmospheric temperature is changing in your region: https://showyourstripes.info