2020 has been an unbelievable year – all things changed in March, including my education and outreach plans for the year. There was one project I started before the pandemic hit, and I’m thrilled I’ve completed this and will now be able to share this gift with Tyler Arboretum.

As Tyler Arboretum recently celebrated its 75th anniversary as an arboretum, I thought I would create a temperature blanket to represent the daily maximum temperature the arboretum experienced in the first four months (I chose four months so that the dimensions of the final product would be around a lap-sized blanket).

Tyler Arboretum was founded on November 10, 1944. I used the historical temperature records from NOAA’s Climate Data Online Search and merged two Philadelphia datasets to get a complete daily record. Each row in the blanket represents one day, resulting in 151 rows for November 10, 1944, through April 9, 1945. The temperature ranged between 11^oF and 87^oF.

The blanket measures 31 inches in length and 34 inches in height, with the first row at the top representing the maximum temperature of 60 degrees on November 10, 1944. I used Red Heart Super Saver yarn, with the following colors assigned to these temperature ranges:

• 11-20  —  Hunter Green
• 21-30  —  Paddy Green
• 31-40  —  Light Sage
• 41-50  —  Frosty Green
• 51-60  —  Pale Yellow
• 61-70  —  Cornmeal
• 71-80  —  Saffron
• 81-90  —  Carrot

See this blog post if you are interested in learning more about creating your own temperature blanket.