It rained a lot more than usual this winter in California. Diana Leonard and Dylan Moriarty, for The Washington Post, explain the science behind all the water falling from the sky.
Tags: rain, Washington Post, weather
Category Archives: weather
Posted by in maps, rain, Washington Post, weather
When spring is coming where you live
Going off the calendar, today is the first day of spring, but nature just goes off the weather. For The Washington Post, Harry Stevens mapped the early and late arrival of spring leaves across the country:
This year’s winter weather pattern cleaved the country in half. As a ridge of high atmospheric pressure warmed the east, a low pressure system kept conditions cooler and wetter than usual across the west, said Michael A. Crimmins, a climate science professor at the University of Arizona.
It’s like Punxsutawney Phil has no actual bearing on the arrival of spring.
Tags: spring, Washington Post, weather
Posted by in maps, spring, Washington Post, weather
Chance of rain and election turnout
There’s rain in the forecast tomorrow in some areas of the United States, which is worth noting because tomorrow is election day. Eve Washington and John Keefe, for The New York Times, picked out the overlap between competitive races and areas it’s likely to rain.
Mainly I post for the A+ headline: “Will Rain Affect Turnout Tomorrow? The Answer Is Cloudy.” That, and I’m reminded of the ever important overlap between an eclipse and sasquatch sightings.
Tags: election, forecast, New York Times, weather
Difficulties reading the cone of uncertainty
It seems that there is always surprise when a hurricane makes landfall in some areas, which some attribute to poor forecast communication with the cone on a map that shows possible paths. Scott Dance and Amudalat Ajasa for The Washington Post discuss the challenges that people have reading the cone of uncertainty:
Indeed, many residents and authorities have said Ian’s track surprised them, even though the cone for days included the storm’s eventual landfall point on its southern edge. So some meteorologists and social scientists are saying the disaster is only the latest evidence that the Hurricane Center should revamp the way it depicts forecasts — communicating the scope and intensity of a storm’s threats, rather than just the expected path of a single point at its center.
Maybe, when it comes to communicating hurricane forecasts, we should get rid of possible-paths maps altogether and focus on possible outcomes. The shape and direction of a storm matters a lot less than the chances the storm hits your town. So no path, just choropleth map that shows probabilities.
Tags: forecast, hurricane, uncertainty, Washington Post, weather
Posted by in design, forecast, hurricane, uncertainty, Washington Post, weather
Meteorologist delighted by surprise map interaction
Meteorologist Greg Dutra was delivering the daily weather news for ABC Chicago and accidentally discovered that his map was interactive when he touched the screen:
This wasn’t in the training manual! @TBrownABC7 @valwarnertv and I go OFF THE RAILS when I discovered the TV is a touch screen while on-air on @ABC7Chicago
pic.twitter.com/almrdxqz3d
— Greg Dutra (@DutraWeather) August 4, 2022
It’s good, wholesome joy from a data display, in case you forgot what that looks like.
Tags: interaction, weather
Posted by in interaction, maps, weather
Distribution of snowfall estimates to show uncertainty
For NYT’s The Upshot, Aatish Bhatia, Josh Katz and Margot Sanger-Katz show the full distribution of expected snowfall in your area instead of just the middle:
The range can be wide. That’s because predicting snow remains tricky, especially several days out, said Alex Lamers, a warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service. Getting a snowfall total right requires predicting the path of a storm correctly, estimating the amount of precipitation and understanding additional factors — like the temperature high in the atmosphere, or wind speeds close to the ground — that can influence the snow’s density.
The Weather Man with Nicolas Cage is such an underrated movie.
Tags: snow, uncertainty, Upshot, weather
Posted by in snow, Statistical Visualization, uncertainty, Upshot, weather
Weather Strip, an app that shows the forecast as a time series
Weather Strip is a new weather app by visualization researcher Robin Stewart. It shows the week’s forecast as a time series chart, aiming to show you details at a glance. The temperature shows as a line chart, and a stacked area chart that represents weather conditions serves as background.
You’d think it’d hit all the right notes for me, but I’m more of a bare minimum type when it comes to weather forecasts. Just a table of highs, lows, and chance of rain is all I need. People seem to be into this view though, so maybe you’ll enjoy this more than me.
Tags: weather
Stay Informed: How Scales Help Us Describe Disasters
Last year’s Atlantic hurricane season was record-breaking. There were 30 named storms during the 2020 season. Thirteen of those became hurricanes (top winds of 74 mph or greater). Six of those reached Category 3 or higher.(1)
Hurricanes are categorized using the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Other scales are used by experts to explain and describe the intensity or severity of disasters like tornadoes and earthquakes. Below are descriptions of some of them.
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale was created in 1971 by civil engineer Herbert Saffir and meteorologist Robert Simpson. Hurricanes are rated (or categorized) 1 to 5 based on their maximum sustained wind speed. The category relates wind speed to the kinds of property damage that are likely to occur from wind.(2)
All hurricanes produce life-threatening winds, but only storms rated Category 3 and higher are considered major hurricanes. Major hurricanes cause devastating to catastrophic wind damage.
Hurricanes of all categories can produce storm surge that requires people to evacuate and take other preventative measures.
The Saffir-Simpson scale only provides information about wind damage. It does not describe damage from other hazards, such as storm surge, inland flooding, or tornadoes spawned by the storm.
Along the coast, storm surge is often the greatest threat to life and property from a hurricane. At least 1,500 people died during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Many of those deaths are attributed either directly or indirectly to storm surge.(3)
Evacuation orders are more likely to be based on storm surge or inland flooding than on the Saffir-Simpson category. It is critical for emergency officials and the public to stay informed of the forecast and to prepare regardless of whether they live near the coast or well inland.
Learn ways to prepare for hurricanes.
The Enhanced Fujita Scale
Researcher Ted Fujita and Allen Pearson of the National Weather Service (NWS), introduced the original Fujita Scale for rating tornadoes in 1971.
Wind researchers and engineers provided substantial enhancements to the scale in the early 2000s, called the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale. NWS adopted the scale in 2007. Like the F-Scale, the EF Scale estimates a tornado’s intensity on a scale, from 0 to 5, based on surveyed damage.(4)
NWS is the only federal agency with the authority to provide official ratings for tornadoes. Ratings are not based on actual measurements of wind speed; although, some researchers have equipment that can estimate speeds through radar velocity data. Ratings are estimates of wind speed based on assessed damage to structures and vegetation. The result is a range of likely
wind speeds.
The most recent EF5 tornado struck Moore, Okla., in May 2013.(5) It killed 24 people, injured many more, and caused billions of dollars in damage. After that tornado, the City of Moore passed building codes requiring new homes be built to withstand at least EF2 wind speeds.
Learn ways to prepare for tornadoes.
Earthquake Magnitude Scales
The Richter Magnitude scale was developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter of the California Institute of Technology and was followed later by many additional magnitude scales. The Moment Magnitude scale is used to rate the magnitude (the amount of energy released) of an earthquake, and is preferred by scientists to determine earthquake magnitudes today. Magnitude is not determined by assessing the damage caused by an earthquake but by using the shaking recorded at the surface as measured by instruments known as seismographs.(6)
Magnitude is expressed on the Moment Magnitude scale in whole numbers and decimal fractions. A whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold increase in measured energy. Each whole number step in the magnitude scale corresponds to the release of about 31 times more energy than the amount associated with the preceding whole number value.
Another important scale used by earthquake scientists is the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale. The MMI scale estimates the intensity of shaking in the region around the earthquake epicenter with a range of values that varies across the landscape corresponding to felt reports of shaking and damage.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 struck the southern California city of Northridge in 1994. The quake killed 57 people, injured more than 9,000, and displaced over 20,000. It caused an estimated $20 billion in property losses and infrastructure damages. It is considered the costliest earthquake in U.S. history.(7)
As a result, building codes changed and retrofitting was done at hospitals and on freeways and water pipes to mitigate (or reduce) the effect of the next earthquake.(8, 9) State and local responders are prepared for the next earthquake with emergency plans and early warning systems, like the MyShake App.
Learn ways to prepare for earthquakes.
Reference
- https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/record-breaking-atlantic-hurricane-season-draws-to-end
- https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php
- https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/surge/
- https://www.weather.gov/oun/efscale
- https://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f5torns.html
- https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/moment-magnitude-richter-scale-what-are-different-magnitude-scales-and-why-are-there-so-many?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products
- https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/seismometers-seismographs-seismograms-whats-difference-how-do-they-work?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products
- https://www.usgs.gov/media/videos/northridge-ca-earthquake-open-file-report-94-179-i
- https://www.npr.org/2019/01/17/686020821/25-years-after-the-northridge-earthquake-is-la-ready-for-the-big-one
Resources
- Ready Wrigley Prepares for Hurricanes
- Ready Wrigley Prepares for Tornadoes
- Ready Wrigley Prepares for Earthquakes
- Earthquake Alerts for California Residents
Thanks in advance for your questions and comments on this Public Health Matters post. Please note that the CDC does not give personal medical advice. If you are concerned you have a disease or condition, talk to your doctor.
Have a question for CDC? CDC-INFO (http://www.cdc.gov/cdc-info/index.html) offers live agents by phone and email to help you find the latest, reliable, and science-based health information on more than 750 health topics.
Stay Informed: How Scales Help Us Describe Disasters
Last year’s Atlantic hurricane season was record-breaking. There were 30 named storms during the 2020 season. Thirteen of those became hurricanes (top winds of 74 mph or greater). Six of those reached Category 3 or higher.(1)
Hurricanes are categorized using the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Other scales are used by experts to explain and describe the intensity or severity of disasters like tornadoes and earthquakes. Below are descriptions of some of them.
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale was created in 1971 by civil engineer Herbert Saffir and meteorologist Robert Simpson. Hurricanes are rated (or categorized) 1 to 5 based on their maximum sustained wind speed. The category relates wind speed to the kinds of property damage that are likely to occur from wind.(2)
All hurricanes produce life-threatening winds, but only storms rated Category 3 and higher are considered major hurricanes. Major hurricanes cause devastating to catastrophic wind damage.
Hurricanes of all categories can produce storm surge that requires people to evacuate and take other preventative measures.
The Saffir-Simpson scale only provides information about wind damage. It does not describe damage from other hazards, such as storm surge, inland flooding, or tornadoes spawned by the storm.
Along the coast, storm surge is often the greatest threat to life and property from a hurricane. At least 1,500 people died during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Many of those deaths are attributed either directly or indirectly to storm surge.(3)
Evacuation orders are more likely to be based on storm surge or inland flooding than on the Saffir-Simpson category. It is critical for emergency officials and the public to stay informed of the forecast and to prepare regardless of whether they live near the coast or well inland.
Learn ways to prepare for hurricanes.
The Enhanced Fujita Scale
Researcher Ted Fujita and Allen Pearson of the National Weather Service (NWS), introduced the original Fujita Scale for rating tornadoes in 1971.
Wind researchers and engineers provided substantial enhancements to the scale in the early 2000s, called the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale. NWS adopted the scale in 2007. Like the F-Scale, the EF Scale estimates a tornado’s intensity on a scale, from 0 to 5, based on surveyed damage.(4)
NWS is the only federal agency with the authority to provide official ratings for tornadoes. Ratings are not based on actual measurements of wind speed; although, some researchers have equipment that can estimate speeds through radar velocity data. Ratings are estimates of wind speed based on assessed damage to structures and vegetation. The result is a range of likely
wind speeds.
The most recent EF5 tornado struck Moore, Okla., in May 2013.(5) It killed 24 people, injured many more, and caused billions of dollars in damage. After that tornado, the City of Moore passed building codes requiring new homes be built to withstand at least EF2 wind speeds.
Learn ways to prepare for tornadoes.
Earthquake Magnitude Scales
The Richter Magnitude scale was developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter of the California Institute of Technology and was followed later by many additional magnitude scales. The Moment Magnitude scale is used to rate the magnitude (the amount of energy released) of an earthquake, and is preferred by scientists to determine earthquake magnitudes today. Magnitude is not determined by assessing the damage caused by an earthquake but by using the shaking recorded at the surface as measured by instruments known as seismographs.(6)
Magnitude is expressed on the Moment Magnitude scale in whole numbers and decimal fractions. A whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold increase in measured energy. Each whole number step in the magnitude scale corresponds to the release of about 31 times more energy than the amount associated with the preceding whole number value.
Another important scale used by earthquake scientists is the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale. The MMI scale estimates the intensity of shaking in the region around the earthquake epicenter with a range of values that varies across the landscape corresponding to felt reports of shaking and damage.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 struck the southern California city of Northridge in 1994. The quake killed 57 people, injured more than 9,000, and displaced over 20,000. It caused an estimated $20 billion in property losses and infrastructure damages. It is considered the costliest earthquake in U.S. history.(7)
As a result, building codes changed and retrofitting was done at hospitals and on freeways and water pipes to mitigate (or reduce) the effect of the next earthquake.(8, 9) State and local responders are prepared for the next earthquake with emergency plans and early warning systems, like the MyShake App.
Learn ways to prepare for earthquakes.
Reference
- https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/record-breaking-atlantic-hurricane-season-draws-to-end
- https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php
- https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/surge/
- https://www.weather.gov/oun/efscale
- https://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f5torns.html
- https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/moment-magnitude-richter-scale-what-are-different-magnitude-scales-and-why-are-there-so-many?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products
- https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/seismometers-seismographs-seismograms-whats-difference-how-do-they-work?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products
- https://www.usgs.gov/media/videos/northridge-ca-earthquake-open-file-report-94-179-i
- https://www.npr.org/2019/01/17/686020821/25-years-after-the-northridge-earthquake-is-la-ready-for-the-big-one
Resources
- Ready Wrigley Prepares for Hurricanes
- Ready Wrigley Prepares for Tornadoes
- Ready Wrigley Prepares for Earthquakes
- Earthquake Alerts for California Residents
Thanks in advance for your questions and comments on this Public Health Matters post. Please note that the CDC does not give personal medical advice. If you are concerned you have a disease or condition, talk to your doctor.
Have a question for CDC? CDC-INFO (http://www.cdc.gov/cdc-info/index.html) offers live agents by phone and email to help you find the latest, reliable, and science-based health information on more than 750 health topics.
Low temperatures map of the United States
Based on data from the Global Forecast System, The New York Times mapped the lowest temperatures across the country between February 14 and 16.
The blue-orange color scale diverges at freezing, which creates a striking image of a very cold country. The dotted lines and temperature labels make the patterns especially obvious.
As someone who lives in an orange area, I was shocked by all of the blue. Stay safe.
Tags: climate, New York Times, temperature, weather
Posted by in Climate, maps, New York Times, temperature, weather