NASA - GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP v4)

​NASA produces a monthly dataset which estimates global surface temperature change. It's part of a number of datasets which can be used to track climate change. They kindly provide the python source code to run or edit the analysis, but unfortunately the fetch functions no longer work. Below I've posted code which I've corrected.

The below image, which is derived from this dataset, shows the temperature difference between Oct 2024, and the average temp in October from 1951-1980. From an insurance context, two significant changes are the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coast being 1-2 degrees warmer than the historic average, which impacts hurricane severity, and California being 2-4 degrees warmer which has contributed to the wildfire conditions in California.

Source: https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/maps/

​​The issue with the code is the html path has changed since the code was created, so you need to replace the source.txt file in the /config folder with the following. I've left in the old html path below but just commented them out, but they are not strictly needed any more.

In [ ]:

# Configuration file for gistemp, describing the
# location and form of all source datasets.
#
# Nick Barnes, Climate Code Foundation, 2012-05-24
# Avi Persin, Revision 2016-01-06

# For the syntax and usage of this file, see
#
# python tool/fetch.py --help.

# GHCNv4 data
# OLD = file: http://datadev.giss.nasa.gov/pub/gistemp/ghcnm.tavg.qcf.dat
file: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/pub/gistemp/ghcnm.tavg.qcf.dat

# ERRSTv5 data
# OLD = bundle: http://datadev.giss.nasa.gov/pub/gistemp/SBBX.ERSSTv5.gz
bundle: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/pub/gistemp/SBBX.ERSSTv5.gz
member: SBBX.ERSSTv5

# station metadata
# OLD = file: http://datadev.giss.nasa.gov/pub/gistemp/v4.inv
file: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/pub/gistemp/v4.inv

# Configuration for code to discard some suspect ('strange') data.
# OLD = file: http://datadev.giss.nasa.gov/pub/gistemp/Ts.strange.v4.list.IN_full
file: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/pub/gistemp/Ts.strange.v4.list.IN_full

# brightness index data
# OLD = file: http://datadev.giss.nasa.gov/pub/gistemp/wrld-rad.data.txt
file: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/pub/gistemp/wrld-rad.data.txt