From the Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Post... a gorgeous, mind-blowing visualization of the world's winds
First, let's watch some people in Norway getting blown over by the winds as Storm Ivar hits Norway
In 2012, weather visualizations took a new turn when Google scientists unveiled hint.fm/wind – a mesmerizing real-time display of wind currents in the U.S.
They’ve taken a giant leap with software engineer Cameron Beccario’s new creation: Earth – an interactive animation of winds around the entire globe. Earth allows users to pan around the world, and zoom into any region. On its fluorescent color palette, the strongest winds pop out at you.
The Earth interface, fed by NOAA data, lets you go back in time and see exactly what was going on. A rip-roaring jet stream was then crashing into Norway (see the screen capture below – the green circle shows the location of the video).
Remember the “biblical snowstorm” we discussed last week, that dumped 12-20 inches of Jerusalem and even a dusting near Cairo? The storm’s upper level vortex as well as the powerhouse winds cycling around it stunningly stand out in the Earth visualizations.
CHECK OUT more of Jason Samenow's article here.
