Weather & Climate

iPhone Weather Radar Applications
iPhone Central reviews a trio of weather radar map applications for the iPhone and iPod touch: Radar in Motion, RadarScope (“the heavyweight here”; pictured at right) and Weather Radar (“the weakest of the trio of offerings discussed here”). RadarScope is $10, the others are a buck each….   Read more →
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 9:10 PM
Categories: Mobile Devices, Software, Weather & Climate
The Big Picture Meets Earth Observatory
I’m a huge fan of The Big Picture; today’s entry features some “standout photographs” from NASA’s Earth Observatory site, which I’ve mentioned before but which bears mentioning again. Above, volcanic rock in Harrat Khaybar in Saudi Arabia, taken by an astronaut aboard the ISS on March 31, 2008….   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 6:08 PM
Categories: Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Mapping Snow Cover
On a day like today, with a whole pile of snow waiting outside for me to shovel, Leszek’s link to the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center, which at this time of year provides all kinds of snow-related information, seems timely. The NOHRSC site includes interactive snow information maps…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 6:11 PM
Categories: Weather & Climate
The Death Map
Researchers from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, have mapped mortality from natural hazards in the United States; using data from 1970 to 2004, their research showed that “chronic” natural hazards like severe seasonal weather and heat waves were far more likely to kill people than more dramatic events…   Read more →
Posted on Monday, December 22, 2008 at 8:26 AM
Categories: Demography, Weather & Climate
Hurricane Season
With even more hurricanes on the way, Google has added a “Hurricane Season 2008” folder to Google Earth. Previously: Post-Gustav Imagery; Mapping Hurricane Gustav….   Read more →
Posted on Friday, September 5, 2008 at 3:13 PM
Categories: Current Events, Google Earth, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Post-Gustav Imagery
Google LatLong points to NOAA aerial imagery taken after the passage of Hurricane Gustav; the imagery has also been processed into a KML file for use in Google Earth, which would allow for some useful before/after comparisons. (The entry also points to a KML file of health facilities in the…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 7:21 AM
Categories: Google Earth, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Mapping Hurricane Gustav
Hurricane Gustav Tracking Maps Firstcoastnews.com FLHurricane.com IbisEye MIBAZAAR MSNBC StormAdvisory (click on Gustav) Wundermap Some are better than others; IbisEye, MSNBC and Wundermap are standouts. Via Anything Geospatial, Google Maps Mania, Kottke and La Cartoteca. Hurricane Gustav in Google Earth Google Earth Blog on tracking Gustav in Google Earth: Frank’s…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 7:18 PM
Categories: Current Events, GIS, Google Earth, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Haptic Weather Maps
Turkish researchers are applying haptics to weather maps, allowing map users to “feel” climate data represented on the map, the New Scientist reported last March: The system converts climate data into forces that a person can feel using a haptic device in the form of a robotic arm with a…   Read more →
Posted on Saturday, August 2, 2008 at 9:12 PM
Categories: Other Technology, Weather & Climate
Mapping Atmospheric Water Vapour
A NASA satellite, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2, primarily measures the height of the ocean surface with a radar altimeter. It also has a sensor to measure atmospheric moisture; this map represents water vapour in the atmosphere measured during the sensor’s first week of operations. Earth Observatory, JPL…   Read more →
Posted on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 9:18 PM
Categories: Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Upcoming Hurricanes
Web comic xkcd imagines upcoming hurricanes. Via Cartophilia….   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Categories: Fun, Weather & Climate
Historical Hurricane Maps
NOAA now has an online tool that maps historical hurricane tracks. You can also compare storm tracks against coastal population data. Data are available for storms as far back as the mid-19th century, and they’re exportable: tracks are also downloadable as shapefiles, and you can get direct links to embed…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, September 2, 2007 at 7:16 AM
Categories: Historical Maps, Weather & Climate
Europe’s Climate in 2071
This map shows the projected climate of Europe in 2071, but it does so in a rather confusing way: it relocates the cities to reflect what present-day locations match their projected climates. So, for example, London, Paris, Stockholm and Oslo would have a climate similar to modern-day Spain and…   Read more →
Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 at 9:47 PM
Categories: Weather & Climate
Map of Extreme Flood Events
An interesting Flash-based map of places affected by “extreme flood events” since 1985 (with incomplete or missing data from some years) from the Dartmouth Flood Observatory, which tracks such things. Via Vector One….   Read more →
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Posted on Sunday, January 21, 2007 at 12:05 PM
Categories: Weather & Climate
The Atlas of Climate Change
The Journal Times of Racine, Wisconsin has a profile of University of South Carolina geography professor Kristin Dow, one of the co-authors of The Atlas of Climate Change: Mapping the World’s Greatest Challenge. She grew up in Racine, so the article is a local-girl-makes-good kind of profile, but it…   Read more →
Posted on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 8:06 AM
Categories: Books, Weather & Climate
ACME Mapper
ACME Mapper started out as a front end for TerraServer; it’s now a Google Maps mashup that adds TerraServer data (including USGS topo maps) and NEXRAD weather radar data as additional layers — though these added layers are U.S.-only. Via Catholicgauze….   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, November 23, 2006 at 6:17 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Topo Maps & Trails, Weather & Climate
Canadian Weather Radar
Environment Canada’s Weather Office says they’ve improved the radar section of their web site. “The improvements include: the provision of extra geographical references, easier navigation from one local radar site to another, and a ‘how to use’ section.” Overlays at the city level; animation speed and duration can also…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, October 12, 2006 at 6:02 PM
Categories: Weather & Climate
Hurricane-Ready Sea Temperatures
Earth Observatory’s weekly mailing is a good way to discover some of the latest satellite imagery, both true- and false-colour; this past week, there was this startling look at ocean temperatures in the hurricane zone. Yellow and up are above 28°C, and as such conducive to hurricane formation….   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 at 4:46 AM
Categories: Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Sailwx.info: Mapping the Oceans
Sailwx.info’s real-time map of ship locations (based on data from the Voluntary Observing Ships program) has been getting a lot of play on the web lately — I first saw it on La Cartoteca — but the site has a lot of other information maps as well, including tides, water…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 at 3:40 PM
Categories: Nautical, Weather & Climate
Lightning Map
Ooo. A map of lightning strikes based on NASA satellite data (more on which here). Via BLDGBLOG. Update, June 20: Frank has made a Google Earth layer out of this map….   Read more →
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Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 at 9:04 AM
Categories: Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
CloudSat
NASA’s new CloudSat satellite takes cross-section images of cloud interiors, allowing researchers to see cloud formations in 3D. The images are essentially transects rather than maps, but can supplement and inform weather-related satellite imagery the same way as ground radar can. The image above is from a warm front…   Read more →
Posted on Friday, June 9, 2006 at 8:51 AM
Categories: Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Severe Weather Imagery for Google Earth
Real-time data (or at least near real-time data) exists in the online mapping world, just not the real-time satellite and aerial imagery that uninformed people get exercised about — take traffic congestion data, for example. Weather data is another possibility for satellite imagery, and radar images are even more up…   Read more →
Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 at 8:11 PM
Categories: Google Earth, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Environment Map Roundup
A few links to maps on environmental (and related) subjects. A project by Dutch scientists to measure European air pollution using NASA’s Aura satellite. Some pages in Dutch. Via Treehugger. The Center for Sustainability and the Global Enviroment has a set of maps and datasets, including an Atlas of the…   Read more →
Posted on Monday, December 19, 2005 at 9:55 AM
Categories: Demography, Environment, Weather & Climate
Tracking Hurricane Wilma
Here we go again. Google Earth Blog has a collection of downloadable automated storm tracking tools (KMZ file). Google Maps Mania points to a couple of Google Maps based storm trackers. Spatially Adjusted links to ESRI’s existing hurricane viewer and the Geospatial One Stop Hurricane page. Many of the sites…   Read more →
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Posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2005 at 9:17 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Hurricanes 2005, Satellite & Aerial, Software, Weather & Climate
PEI Wind Atlas
Cute little Canadian province Prince Edward Island has released an online wind atlas, the CBC reports. The atlas, in PDF and ALOV-based interactive versions, maps potential wind energy — i.e., potential locations for wind turbines. See previous entry: Wind Energy Atlases….   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, October 13, 2005 at 10:24 PM
Categories: Energy & Resources, Environment, Weather & Climate
A Small Hurricane Update
Kathryn Cramer reports that new Rita overlays for Google Earth based on updated NOAA imagery are now available. Meanwhile, Wired carries an AP story about mapping the storm surge from Katrina: surveyors are trying to create an atlas of the storm surge, essentially, to prepare better for the next one….   Read more →
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Posted on Monday, October 10, 2005 at 8:00 AM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, Satellite & Aerial, Software, Weather & Climate
First Post-Hurricane Rita Images
Kathryn Cramer reports that the first post-Hurricane Rita images from the areas hardest hit by the storm have been posted by NOAA. As was the case with Katrina, the interface — starting with a base map index page — is not the most intuitive or user-friendly, and the images are…   Read more →
Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 at 10:03 PM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, Satellite & Aerial, Software, Weather & Climate
Hurricane Rita Update
Fantastic multidimensional satellite imagery of Hurricane Rita from NOAA; via Spatially Adjusted. Also, you can now track Hurricane Rita with Virtual Earth; via Scoble. On an organizational note, I’ve combined entries about Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita into a new Hurricanes 2005 category; links to the old Katrina category archives…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, September 22, 2005 at 8:28 AM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Hurricanes 2005, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Tracking Hurricane Rita, Part Two
Directions has compiled a page of links to U.S. government maps related to Hurricane Rita; this will be updated as new information becomes available, they say. James Fee, in re ESRI helping various government agencies: “It seems that everyone has learned much about what happened after the devastation of Katrina…   Read more →
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Posted on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at 7:27 PM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Oh No, Not Again: Tracking Hurricane Rita
There are several resources for keeping tabs on the next volley of tropical storms to hit the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. NOAA’s Storm Tracker page for Rita and Philippe has tracking maps and satellite photos. Google Earth users can download a live hurricane tracker that lists all…   Read more →
Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 9:30 PM
Categories: Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Hurricanes 2005, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
More Post-Katrina Maps and Photos
Glenn of GISuser.com has been collecting photos, maps and other graphics related to hurricanes — Katrina in particular, naturally — on his Flickr account. Late to the party, but Microsoft has put in a solid, if buggy effort with this Virtual Earth powered feature on MSNBC’s web site. Conceptually,…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, September 15, 2005 at 8:10 AM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, New Orleans, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
More Post-Katrina Maps
It’s been a few days since I last posted on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Here are a few more links. Apologies for letting them accumulate. ESRI’s Hurricane Katrina Disaster Viewer is, according to ESRI’s Lisa Kensok, who submitted this link, “designed to provide more detailed information than satellite imagery…   Read more →
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Posted on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 at 8:58 PM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, New Orleans, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
More About Flood Maps
Forbes reports that FEMA’s outdated flood maps meant that many people in Hurricane Katrina’s path didn’t have flood insurance because, according to those maps, they weren’t in a flood plain and didn’t need it. More generally on inaccurate flood maps from this Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. Via All Points Blog and…   Read more →
Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2005 at 9:43 PM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, Mapping Errors, Weather & Climate
More New Orleans Flood Maps
More flood maps of New Orleans (see this morning’s entry). Kathryn Cramer, whose blog has turned into an immense resource for Hurricane Katrina information, links to a Google Maps hack that shows the approximate water depth in flooded areas; because of the limitations of Google Maps, it’s a bit of…   Read more →
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Posted on Tuesday, September 6, 2005 at 9:23 PM
Categories: Hacks & Mashups, Hurricanes 2005, New Orleans, Weather & Climate
Mississippi Channel; New Orleans Flood Map
Over on GeoCarta, Roger goes beyond the latest satellite and aerial photography of New Orleans (which is what’s getting the lion’s share of attention); he looks at NOAA’s survey of the damage to the Mississippi River shipping channel and has posted a copy of FEMA’s flood map for New Orleans….   Read more →
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Posted on Tuesday, September 6, 2005 at 7:27 AM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, New Orleans, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Google and Katrina
In addition to the Forbes article I mentioned yesterday, both the BBC and New York Times (free registration required) cover the use of Google Maps and Earth by ordinary users to collect and distribute information about the disaster — i.e., the “non-official” Google Earth overlays and Google Maps hacks (via…   Read more →
Posted on Monday, September 5, 2005 at 11:50 AM
Categories: Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Hurricanes 2005, Online Maps, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Hurricane Katrina: Google Maps and Other Imagery
I’ve been getting e-mail from people asking about the state of various locations in and around New Orleans and other areas hit by Hurricane Katrina. I’m not the best person to answer such questions — I’m just someone from small-town western Quebec who runs a site about maps; I haven’t…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, September 4, 2005 at 9:38 PM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, New Orleans, Online Maps, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
More New Orleans Satellite Photos
Orbimage’s satellite photos of New Orleans post-Katrina, here and here, are in black and white; as a result, the detail is much sharper and the flooded parts of the city are much more visible, as the example above (courtesy Orbimage) shows. False-colour images can be more revealing than straight…   Read more →
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Posted on Friday, September 2, 2005 at 1:26 PM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, New Orleans, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Hurricane Katrina Update
I’ve been reorganizing my categories a bit; my Hurricane Katrina entries now have their own category. More satellite imagery: Before and after satellite images from GlobalSecurity.org. Landsat’s before and after images seem to have more detail than the others. NASA has posted a new photo of the levee breach which…   Read more →
Posted on Friday, September 2, 2005 at 10:29 AM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, New Orleans, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Hurricane Katrina: More Satellite Images
(Updated) More satellite imagery from the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina is being made available. Space Imaging’s Image Gallery has images of New Orleans before Katrina and Mobile, Alabama after Katrina (via Cartography). Digital Globe’s Hurricane Katrina Media Gallery has before/after images of New Orleans and post-hurricane images of Biloxi,…   Read more →
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Posted on Thursday, September 1, 2005 at 7:05 AM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, New Orleans, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Hurricane Katrina: Before and After
(Updated) Susan Kitchens has compiled and sent along an animated image (680-KB animated GIF) that shows the New Orleans area before and after Hurricane Katrina passed through; per her suggestion, I’m hosting it on my server. See previous entries: Hurricane Katrina; Hurricane Katrina: The Aftermath. Update, 10:30 PM: Boing Boing…   Read more →
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Posted on Wednesday, August 31, 2005 at 5:30 PM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, New Orleans, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Hurricane Katrina: The Aftermath
(Many updates) Watch Hurricane Katrina’s path via satellite imagery or radar; both are NOAA pages and both require Java. Via Paulo. Kathryn Cramer has been collecting aerial images of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, along with some screenshots from Google Earth. Speaking of which, over on Boing…   Read more →
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Posted on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 at 10:18 PM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, New Orleans, Satellite & Aerial, Software, Weather & Climate
Satellite Images of European Natural Disasters
In other natural disaster news, Vector One has linked to ESA satellite imagery of the Portuguese wildfires and floods in Austria, Switzerland and Germany….   Read more →
Posted on Monday, August 29, 2005 at 10:26 PM
Categories: Current Events, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
Hurricane Katrina
(Many updates) I’ve been looking for maps and satellite imagery of Hurricane Katrina. So far, I’ve found this page from the National Hurricane Center and this page (a popup) from the NOAA Storm Tracker site, which has many of the same maps but adds satellite images. More links welcome. Update,…   Read more →
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Posted on Sunday, August 28, 2005 at 10:29 PM
Categories: Hurricanes 2005, Satellite & Aerial, Weather & Climate
BBC Weather Map Overhaul Draws Complaints
The BBC recently overhauled the graphics for its weather maps, and that hasn’t gone over very well. Noel Jenkins sent in a link to his take on the affair. Essentially, people are complaining that the BBC has “dumbed down” the graphics, improving clarity at the cost of detail. Outdoor enthusiasts…   Read more →
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Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 at 3:10 PM
Categories: Weather & Climate
Global Wind Map
Further to my previous post on wind atlases, two Stanford University researchers have compiled a global wind map that charts wind energy potential worldwide. Both Wired News and WorldChanging have details and copies of the map….   Read more →
Posted on Monday, May 23, 2005 at 9:36 PM
Categories: Environment, Weather & Climate
Wind Energy Atlases
A wind energy atlas maps wind energy potential: it shows the average velocity and power of a given area, which is useful for people or companies interested in setting up wind generators. Here are the Canadian Wind Energy Atlas and the Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States, from…   Read more →
Posted on Monday, May 2, 2005 at 8:43 AM
Categories: Environment, Weather & Climate
Mapping the Weather to Health
I’ve seen pollen forecasts on weather channels, mapping allergens for allergy sufferers, and of course there are the golf and ski forecasts, but the British Weather Channel’s forecasts for aches and pains and seasonal affective disorder are new to me. From their explanation of the aches and pains map: This…   Read more →
Posted on Sunday, August 22, 2004 at 12:57 PM
Categories: Weather & Climate

Note: Entries from 2003 were not categorized and will not appear in the category archives. Please consult the monthly archives.