R can create plots with lots of flexibility. The following is a few examples of how R can be used to create plots using a long running data set of temperatures in the northern hemisphere and the monthly temperature anomaly from the 1961 - 1990 average.
The colors used in plots can be changed based on any number of variables, allowing for plots which highlight certain features of the data. The following code creates a plot which shows annual temperature anomaly with years before 1980 in purple and years after 1980 in orange.
giss <- read.csv("C:/Users/ellis/OneDrive/Desktop/School/Summer 2026/Module 5/giss_temp.csv")
allyears = unique(giss$Year)
ann_temp = tapply(giss$TempAnom, giss$Year, mean)
mycols = ifelse(allyears > 1980, "orange", "purple")
plot(allyears, ann_temp, type = 'h',
col = mycols, lwd = 3,
xlab= "Year", ylab = "T anomaly")
R can also create plots iteratively, allowing for display and analysis of large or complex data sets. The following code generates a series of plots for each year of data. Each plot shows the temperature anomaly of each month for a different year.
for (i in 1881:2011) {
print((paste("Year", i, sep=' ')))
yearID = which(giss$Year == i)
plot(giss$Month[yearID], giss$TempAnom[yearID],
xlab="Month", ylab="Temperature Anomaly")
}[1] "Year 1881"
[1] "Year 1882"
[1] "Year 1883"
[1] "Year 1884"
[1] "Year 1885"
[1] "Year 1886"
[1] "Year 1887"
[1] "Year 1888"
[1] "Year 1889"
[1] "Year 1890"
[1] "Year 1891"
[1] "Year 1892"
[1] "Year 1893"
[1] "Year 1894"
[1] "Year 1895"
[1] "Year 1896"
[1] "Year 1897"
[1] "Year 1898"
[1] "Year 1899"
[1] "Year 1900"
[1] "Year 1901"
[1] "Year 1902"
[1] "Year 1903"
[1] "Year 1904"
[1] "Year 1905"
[1] "Year 1906"
[1] "Year 1907"
[1] "Year 1908"
[1] "Year 1909"
[1] "Year 1910"
[1] "Year 1911"
[1] "Year 1912"
[1] "Year 1913"
[1] "Year 1914"
[1] "Year 1915"
[1] "Year 1916"
[1] "Year 1917"
[1] "Year 1918"
[1] "Year 1919"
[1] "Year 1920"
[1] "Year 1921"
[1] "Year 1922"
[1] "Year 1923"
[1] "Year 1924"
[1] "Year 1925"
[1] "Year 1926"
[1] "Year 1927"
[1] "Year 1928"
[1] "Year 1929"
[1] "Year 1930"
[1] "Year 1931"
[1] "Year 1932"
[1] "Year 1933"
[1] "Year 1934"
[1] "Year 1935"
[1] "Year 1936"
[1] "Year 1937"
[1] "Year 1938"
[1] "Year 1939"
[1] "Year 1940"
[1] "Year 1941"
[1] "Year 1942"
[1] "Year 1943"
[1] "Year 1944"
[1] "Year 1945"
[1] "Year 1946"
[1] "Year 1947"
[1] "Year 1948"
[1] "Year 1949"
[1] "Year 1950"
[1] "Year 1951"
[1] "Year 1952"
[1] "Year 1953"
[1] "Year 1954"
[1] "Year 1955"
[1] "Year 1956"
[1] "Year 1957"
[1] "Year 1958"
[1] "Year 1959"
[1] "Year 1960"
[1] "Year 1961"
[1] "Year 1962"
[1] "Year 1963"
[1] "Year 1964"
[1] "Year 1965"
[1] "Year 1966"
[1] "Year 1967"
[1] "Year 1968"
[1] "Year 1969"
[1] "Year 1970"
[1] "Year 1971"
[1] "Year 1972"
[1] "Year 1973"
[1] "Year 1974"
[1] "Year 1975"
[1] "Year 1976"
[1] "Year 1977"
[1] "Year 1978"
[1] "Year 1979"
[1] "Year 1980"
[1] "Year 1981"
[1] "Year 1982"
[1] "Year 1983"
[1] "Year 1984"
[1] "Year 1985"
[1] "Year 1986"
[1] "Year 1987"
[1] "Year 1988"
[1] "Year 1989"
[1] "Year 1990"
[1] "Year 1991"
[1] "Year 1992"
[1] "Year 1993"
[1] "Year 1994"
[1] "Year 1995"
[1] "Year 1996"
[1] "Year 1997"
[1] "Year 1998"
[1] "Year 1999"
[1] "Year 2000"
[1] "Year 2001"
[1] "Year 2002"
[1] "Year 2003"
[1] "Year 2004"
[1] "Year 2005"
[1] "Year 2006"
[1] "Year 2007"
[1] "Year 2008"
[1] "Year 2009"
[1] "Year 2010"
[1] "Year 2011"