In our house it works as trying to get the continent first, seeing what is hottest (dark red) then going through all the neighbouring countries - we have not looked at the distance tbh
We are generally fine unless it is somewhere like Benin or central African republic in Africa but we are now improving, which is a good thing as the latter is so often seen as a mass: one day we will be able to name all 54 countries. My 9 year old is better than me though.