Using and Understanding Data — Destructive Storms
In 2013 I took the course Data Design and Visualization at University of Pennsylvania.
On October 29, 2012, the destructive hurricane Sandy hit the Easy Coast. The storm cost $68.7 billion in damages making it the Fourth-costliest hurricane in U.S. history.
I was inspired to create visualization that showed how the intensity of hurricanes has progressed over the years. The question being, is this “normal” or is it global warming effecting the intensity and scale of storms.
My raw data resource was the NOAA Technical Memorandum “The Deadliest, Costliest, And Most Intense United States Tropical Cyclones From 1851 To 2010 (And Other Frequently Requested Hurricane Facts): by Eric S. Blake, Christopher W. Landsea and Ethan J. Gibney I.M. Systems Group NCDC Asheville.
Taking the data from their report and the creating spirals based on each storms data points. My equations was as follows:
Radius = ($ / 10,000), Decay = Wind Speed, Segments = Storm Surge, Line Width = (Total Rainfall / 5)
The storms recorded do in fact progress in the size and scale as time goes on. Most telling is the jump in size and scale in 2008–2012 to storms.