The temperature right now, around the world

What you are looking at

Every label is a city with its temperature for the current hour and a small symbol for the sky. Together they show the planet's weather at a glance: summer in one hemisphere and winter in the other, deserts in the afternoon heat, mountains and high plateaus colder than the lowlands around them.

How to read it

• Each number is the temperature for this hour in that city, in °C.
• The symbol beside it shows the sky: sun, cloud, rain, snow or thunder.
• Zoom in for more cities; each country page shows its capital's next three days.

Questions

Where is it hottest right now?

It changes through the day, as the afternoon moves around the planet. The hottest cities are usually in the Persian Gulf, the Sahara and South Asia in the northern summer, and in Australia and southern Africa in the southern summer.

Is this a measurement or a forecast?

It is the forecast for the current hour from MET Norway's global model, which is close to what a thermometer shows but can differ by a degree or two, especially in mountains and on coasts.

Why only cities?

The temperature is shown where people live and where a number is easy to read: every capital and the largest cities, about four hundred places in all.