The Mid-Hudson Library System (MHLS) is marking Earth Month with the launch of a new community-driven art initiative in collaboration with the Tempestry Project. The partnership seeks to transform climate data into tangible, local storytelling through fiber arts, inviting more than 100 knitters across the Hudson Valley to participate in creating a collective visual record of climate change.
The project centers on “Tempestries,” hand-knit, scarf-sized wall hangings that depict the daily high temperatures for a particular year and location. Each Tempestry is based on climate data collected at Mohonk Mountain House, the Hudson Valley’s only continuous weather data source since 1895. Participants can select meaningful years to commemorate—whether a personal milestone or a pivotal moment in local history—using yarns matched to temperature ranges.
When displayed together, the finished Tempestries will form a vivid, time-spanning portrait of regional climate trends from 1895 through 2025. The Mid-Hudson Libraries Tempestry Collection will travel throughout the Hudson Valley, offering communities a local lens through which to view the broader narrative of global warming.
“One of the ongoing challenges in communicating about climate change is its overwhelming scale,” said Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, executive director of MHLS. “This project offers a way to translate complex data into something beautiful, relatable, and personal. Libraries are natural catalysts for this kind of community engagement.”
The collaboration with the Tempestry Project aligns with MHLS’s broader mission to promote environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic feasibility through library services. MHLS was the first public library system in the country to achieve certification through the Sustainable Library Certification Program.
Each Tempestry kit costs $81 and includes individually-wound yarn bobbins, a color card, project pattern, worksheet with temperature data, and a project label. Yarn is sourced from a responsible US vendor, and color ranges are standardized across all projects to ensure consistency and coherence. Finished Tempestries must be returned to member libraries or the MHLS headquarters in Poughkeepsie by December 2025.
The Tempestry Project, founded to bridge the gap between environmental data and personal experience, has seen similar community projects emerge across the country. Each handmade Tempestry contributes to a growing, decentralized mosaic of climate history. As more individuals contribute, the visual record becomes both richer and harder to ignore.
Through this effort, MHLS andthe Tempestry Project emphasize the role of collective action in addressing environmental challenges. By inviting individuals to knit a single year, the project underscores how small, personal contributions can come together to create a larger, more powerful story. In doing so, it echoes broader themes within the climate movement: that meaningful change arises not from isolated actions, but through coordinated efforts woven together across time and communities.
This article appears in April 2025.
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