About PTI
Our Mission
The Political Temperature Index exists to provide an objective, data-driven measurement of political tension in the United States. In an era of an increasingly polarized political climate and information overload, we believe having a clear, transparent metric helps everyone better understand the current political climate, not through anecdote or commentary but through a consistent daily reading of the social and political climate as it actually appears in news, discourse, and government activity.
Why This Matters
Track Trends
See how political tension changes over time and identify patterns around events.
Balance Check
Understand how coverage differs between left and right media sources.
Transparency
Full methodology disclosure so you can understand exactly how scores are calculated.
Non-Partisan
We measure tension, not who's right or wrong. The data speaks for itself.
How It Works
Every day, the Political Temperature Index collects and analyzes thousands of data points to produce a single score representing the current level of US political tension.
Daily Scale
Measured on a 0 to 100 scale, from Frozen to Meltdown
Unique Sources
News feeds, social platforms, congressional votes, court opinions, and cross-validation signals
Sentiment Analysis
Multi-model ensemble scoring across the political spectrum
Daily Updates
Refreshed at 7 AM and 7 PM ET
For full technical details, see the methodology page.
Understanding the Scale
The Political Temperature Index uses seven levels to describe the current state of US political tension. Each level corresponds to a score range and reflects a distinct intensity of political activity.
Frozen
0-14
Virtually no political tension. Rare outside of holiday recesses or periods of strong national unity.
Cool
15-29
Low political activity. Routine governance with minimal partisan conflict or media attention.
Mild
30-44
Normal baseline. Standard legislative activity, typical news coverage, moderate social media discourse.
Warm
45-59
Elevated tension. Active policy debates, contested legislation, or emerging controversies gaining traction.
Hot
60-74
High tension. Major policy fights, significant protests, or divisive events dominating the news cycle.
Boiling
75-89
Crisis-level tension. Major political crisis or highly contentious event dominating all media and public discourse.
Meltdown
90-100
Extreme crisis. Historic-level political upheaval such as impeachment proceedings, contested elections, or national emergencies.
Who Uses PTI
Journalists
Track the current political climate to provide context in reporting. Identify whether today's tension levels are historically unusual or within normal ranges.
Researchers
Study polarization trends, media bias patterns, and political sentiment with daily data across multiple dimensions.
Educators
Teach media literacy and political engagement using a transparent, data-driven tool that shows how different sources cover the same events.
Concerned Citizens
Get an objective daily snapshot of the political environment without the noise of partisan commentary or social media echo chambers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Political Temperature Index?
The Political Temperature Index (PTI) is a daily measurement of the US political climate and political tension on a 0-100 scale. It aggregates data from news coverage, social media discourse, congressional voting patterns, court opinions, and more to produce an objective, non-partisan snapshot of the current political climate.
How is the temperature calculated?
The temperature is calculated from five weighted sub-indices: Volume Signal (30%), Coverage Polarization (30%), Story Intensity (20%), Rhetoric Heat (10%), and Legislative Friction (10%). These weights were originally tuned against a historical event set, while public response metrics now include only source-verified events with overlapping PTI temperature data. Each sub-index is further weighted by a real-time data-quality confidence score, so indices with sparse or stale data have less influence on the final temperature. See our methodology page for full technical details.
What data sources does PTI use?
PTI analyzes 140+ unique data sources across 27 active integrations: news APIs (GDELT, Google News RSS, NewsData.io, NewsAPI.org, Guardian, MediaStack), an aggregator pulling from 65 RSS feeds, 8 federal agency press release feeds (DOJ, SEC, DHS, Federal Reserve, Census, USDA, State Department, EPA), social platforms (Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy, Threads) plus 50+ political YouTube channels, legislative and judicial sources (Congress.gov, GovTrack, Federal Register, LegiScan, OpenStates, Congressional Record, Regulations.gov, govinfo), election signals (Polymarket, Kalshi, Manifold, Google Political Ads transparency report, Mobilize campaign events), and campaign finance data from the FEC including independent expenditures and electioneering communications.
How often is the temperature updated?
The temperature is updated twice daily at 7 AM and 7 PM ET. The data pipeline ingests articles, social posts, congressional votes, and other signals, then runs AI-powered sentiment analysis and clustering before producing the final score.
Is PTI politically biased?
PTI is designed to be strictly non-partisan. We measure tension level, not who is right or wrong. Our source database includes outlets across the full political spectrum with bias ratings from AllSides and Media Bias/Fact Check. PTI measures political tension specifically: positive developments like bipartisan agreements reduce the Friction sub-index, but the index is structurally oriented toward detecting conflict and elevated activity rather than calm periods.
What does a high temperature mean?
A high temperature (60+) indicates elevated political tension driven by a combination of factors: increased news volume, more partisan media coverage, higher toxicity in public discourse, contentious legislative activity, and breaking political events. It reflects the intensity of the political environment, not a judgment on any particular position.
How can I see the political climate today?
The dashboard home page is a live snapshot of the political climate today. The headline number is the composite temperature, the five sub-indices show what is driving the current political climate (volume, polarization, intensity, rhetoric, friction), and the Top Drivers panel lists the specific stories doing the most to heat or cool the index. The trend chart shows how the political climate has moved over the last 30 days.
What are some examples of political climate that PTI tracks?
PTI is designed to capture concrete, observable examples of political climate rather than abstract impressions: highly polarized coverage of the same story by left and right outlets, surges in news and social volume around contested legislation, party-line voting patterns in Congress, breaking events with broad media attention, and shifts in prediction-market expectations. Each of these is an example of political climate, and each shows up as movement in one of the five sub-indices.
How would you describe the current political climate?
Rather than describe the current political climate in our own words, PTI lets the data describe it. The home page shows today’s 0-100 score, a plain-English label (Frozen through Meltdown), the daily AI-generated summary, and the top stories driving the number. Read together, those elements describe the current political climate using only the underlying signal: news coverage, social discourse, congressional friction, and breaking events.
Data Ethics
We are committed to responsible data practices:
- All data sources are publicly available APIs
- No personal data is collected or stored
- Source bias ratings are based on established fact-checking organizations
- Source balance across the political spectrum is checked via automated quality reports
- Our full methodology is publicly disclosed
- The temperature measures tension level, not who is right or wrong
- Historical event validation uses 1,100+ cataloged real-world events spanning 2015-2026, with public response metrics limited to source-verified events that overlap PTI temperature history
Governance
How PTI maintains independence, accuracy, and public trust. These practices apply to every aspect of the index, from source selection to scoring methodology to public publication.
Nonpartisan scope
PTI measures political tension, not partisan position. We do not endorse parties, candidates, or policy outcomes. Source coverage spans the full political spectrum and is monitored for balance.
No pay-to-influence
We do not accept funding, sponsorship, or partnership terms that grant influence over scoring, source selection, weighting, or methodology. Funders and partners can support the work; they cannot shape its conclusions.
Source transparency
Our 140 unique data sources across 27 active integrations are documented on the methodology page. Source bias ratings come from established fact-checking organizations. Source mix is reviewed through automated quality reports.
AI role and limits
AI handles sentiment classification, clustering, and event detection across an ensemble of providers (Groq, Cerebras, Gemini, Mistral, OpenAI, Anthropic) with automatic failover. AI does not set the scoring weights, determine sub-index design, or override the validated calibration. Where AI confidence is low, we blend with historical baselines and disclose the degraded-mode signal rather than substituting placeholder data.
Human review boundaries
We review system outputs for obvious errors, methodology drift, and source-quality issues. We do not adjust individual daily scores to reflect editorial preferences. Tuning of internal thresholds requires explicit approval before taking effect, and approved changes are recorded in the methodology changelog.
Corrections policy
When we identify a data-quality issue, methodology bug, or factual error, we fix the underlying cause, document the change in the public changelog, and recompute affected days where appropriate. We do not silently revise scores.
Conflict-of-interest disclosure
PTI is operated by Fralick Group LLC (Maine). Any partnership, sponsorship, or funding relationship that could create a perceived conflict with PTI's nonpartisan measurement will be disclosed publicly on this page. We commit to keeping this disclosure current as relationships change.
Audit trail
The public changelog records dated entries for methodology changes, source additions, scoring updates, and reliability work. Daily index scores are timestamped and persisted; the historical record is queryable through the public API.
Handling uncertainty
Real-world signals are noisy and incomplete. When data is sparse, stale, or degraded, we lower confidence-weighted contributions to the daily score rather than fabricate precision. The aim is calibrated honesty about what the index can and cannot say on a given day.
Contact
Have questions, feedback, or suggestions? We'd love to hear from you.
We welcome feedback on our methodology, data quality, or source coverage. Use our contact form or email us directly at politicaltemperature@proton.me.