5 ms·
Wind Map
- th0ma5 14y agoThis uses computer model predictions, not observations. While the forecast may be more accurate towards the center of the hurricane, I can say that it isn't very accurate in many other places. Particle simulations are great though! And the general aesthetic is very pleasing, but I fear that such things trumping good data understanding are going to be the norm going forward.
- willyt 14y agoData presentations should always be both aesthetically considered and correct, the right aesthetic can aid massively to help interpret the data. See Envisioning information by Edward Tufte http://www.edwardtufte.com/ http://www.edwardtufte.com/
- cstuder 14y agoPrevious discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3767889 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3767889 Fun fact: I actually use this website in technical interviews and ask the candidate, how they would go at implementing it. (I work at a meteorological company.)
- th0ma5 14y agoI would've gone with MADIS data, although interpolating that data over the area without sensors could be tricky, or perhaps could be worked in. Additionally it would be better if it had a more traditional slippy maps interface, was less "artsy," and like another poster on here had some labels. It would be great to also explore if highlighting gusts or or other straight-line wind type events could be shown as propagating and dispersing in areas where higher resolution sensors are located. Anyway, now that I've typed this, I guess you didn't really ask :P
- trafficlight 14y agoI'd also like to see an underlying topographic map. It'd be interesting to see how the surface features affect the wind.
- lbotos 14y agoAlong these lines I think it was interesting to see pretty much why "Tornado Alley" works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_alley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_alley
- MartinCron 14y agoThis is beautiful, although it would be useful to mark a few more major cities on the map.
- icesoldier 14y agoMore cities show up if you click to zoom in. Some cities may take a few zoom levels to show up, though, like my native Amarillo.
- ggchappell 14y ago> ... it would be useful to mark a few more major cities on the map. It would. And some of the ones that are marked are kinda pointless. Anyone with any knowledge of U.S. geography can find New York, San Jose, and Seattle by the shape of the coastline. But what about Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Memphis, Omaha, Louisville, Indianapolis, St. Louis, etc. Regardless, very nice visualization.
- arbuge 14y agoThis is pretty cool. You can actually see the impact of Sandy on the East Coast live as the winds speed up... hopefully that one turns out to be less bad than the forecasts are saying.
- josscrowcroft 14y agoAbsolutely beautiful.
- arscan 14y agoI don't understand why news organizations haven't adopted this kind of visualization yet for hurricanes. This has been around for awhile, and I always pull it up when a hurricane hits the US. Its a far better way to display wind than the standard precipitation-oriented maps.
- dfc 14y agoThis would make a beautiful visualization of the hairy ball problem: "The hairy ball theorem of algebraic topology states that there is no nonvanishing continuous tangent vector field on even dimensional n-spheres. For the ordinary sphere, or 2‑sphere, if f is a continuous function that assigns a vector in R3 to every point p on a sphere such that f(p) is always tangent to the sphere at p, then there is at least one p such that f(p) = 0. In other words, whenever one attempts to comb a hairy ball flat, there will always be at least one tuft of hair at one point on the ball. The theorem was first stated by Henri Poincaré in the late 19th century." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairy_ball_theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairy_ball_theorem
- the_cat_kittles 14y agoProof be damned, I can't help but try and think of ways to comb it flat... :)
- nealabq 14y agoHairy bagels, on the other hand, can be combed without cowlicks.
- Devilboy 14y agoWhat about a bagel with two holes?
- sbi 14y agoThe Euler characteristic of a compact orientable genus g surface X is nonzero if g is not 1 (the general formula is 2-2g), so the Euler class e(TX) of the tangent bundle TX of X is nonzero. This implies that TX cannot have a continuous nowhere-vanishing section. If it did, e(TX) would be 0. The single-holed torus is the only orientable compact surface that possesses a continuous nonvanishing vector field.
- brownbat 14y agoAh, the dilemma of Wikipedia math articles, which all kick off with mouthfuls like "nonvanishing continuous tangent vector field." If you don't have a PhD in mathematics, they're unreadable. And if you do, they're unnecessary.
- michaelwww 14y agoWhy is he wind going backwards on the East Coast?
- freehunter 14y agoThere's a hurricane centered below New York right now that is drastically altering the wind patterns. Unless you're seeing something I'm not...
- michaelwww 14y agoThe actual satellite view of Sandy shows most of the wind flow directly onshore from New Jersey towards Philly. This app shows it flowing the opposite direction, unless my eyes are playing tricks. The white areas are flowing towards the East.
- dspeyer 14y agoIt's hard to judge speeds from this, and they're often more important than direction. It's beautiful, but it doesn't tell me if the next high tide will have an even higher surge.