Tag: maps & creative maps

by Xio Alvarez, Sarah Mousa, and Devin Zhang

The tropical cyclones database includes granular meteorological data on all cyclones ever recorded by NOAA. While many people have some general familiarity with the categorizations given to cyclones, we precieved a gap between the highly specific data presented in the database and the physical impact of the storms themselves. Most people will understand that a category 5 is stronger than a category 2 cyclone, but the magnitude of difference and what that atmospheric pressure and wind speed actually appears as on the ground are less understood.

We decided to take this data and develop a sketch for a a tv series called “The Life of a Storm” which would connect the meteorological details of historical cyclones to the images and stories of their impacts on the ground. One thing that was clear from the data was that each storm moves through many phases and is felt differently in different places. Our news research also showed us that similar storms can have different impacts depending on how prepared people are for their arrival. The intention of this series is to educate a general public audience on the impacts of different storms and the types of preparedness and policies that are effective in mitigating their effects.

“The Life of A Storm: Hurricane Irma”

Our sketch looks at Hurricane Irma, one of many cyclones from the dataset that struck the Carribean and southern coast of North America in the hurricane season of 2017. Irma is a useful storm for us to use for this premier episode as it began as a category 5 and proceeded to make landfall as it progressed through its decline, tracking across western Florida before downgrading to a tropical storm and then depression over Georgia and Alabama. Our sketch geographically locates the storm as it downgrades, stopping at each point to understand how the effects were felt on the ground and what types of damage were typical in that area. We connect these images to stories from neighbors and victims in their own words.

Our hope is that by traversing levels of abstraction (maps to satellites to photos), we are able to create a memorable connection between the technical language of emergency management and meteorology.

Other Sources

Satellite Images: Google Earth

News reporting:

Cuba:

• https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article194517349.html
• https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/09/10/cuba-sees-devastation-hurricane-irma/651125001/

Florida:

• https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/fl-reg-keys-visual-then-now-20180907-story.html
• https://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article172742816.html
• https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article217950495.html
• https://www.orlandosentinel.com/weather/hurricane/os-hurricane-irma-damage-in-naples-and-southwest-florida-pictures-20170912-photogallery.html
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/tampa-bays-escape-from-irma-was-more-than-luck-some-say/2017/09/15/5f7b618e-9a20-11e7-87fc-c3f7ee4035c9_story.html

Georgia:

• https://wgxa.tv/news/local/photos-hurricane-irma-damage-across-middle-georgia
• https://www.weather.gov/ffc/2017_Irma#winddamagephoto

Team members: Claudia Chen, Sam Ihns, Robert M. Vunabandi

We explored the wine dataset (700 Years of Grape Harvests), and decided to take an approach where we are wine advertisers and our audience is made of wine and history enthusiasts. We advertise through wine labels, so we made 3 wine labels highlighting 3 specific points in history with interesting events related to the harvests of wine at that time.

Data

The 700 Years of Grape Harvests dataset contains, for each of 27 regions in Europe (most of which were in France), the number of days since August 31 after which grapes were harvested in each of the years from 1354 to 2007. While the time range is huge, a lot of the dataset was missing for various reasons. The main reason were that not all regions started recording this information at the same time (the region of Burgundy is the one that was first). In addition, due to various historical events, some parts of the data were missing heavily.

Sketches

For our sketches, we made wine labels. The idea behind each label is that the label will be attached to a wine bottle and will give specific details about the historical context under which the wine was made. We chose to focus on French regions because most of the dataset was focused on France and within the dataset, French regions had the least amount of data missing. So, each label presents a story in a specific point in time when a notable event took place and changed the history of wine in France. In addition to that, we chose to focus on specific regions (as opposed of looking at all the regions and comparing them) because it allowed us to better tell a compelling advertising story on a wine bottle.

So, here are the 3 sketches we have:

Great Wine Blights, 1868:

Champagne Riots, 1910:

World War II, 1941:

Video

Other Sources

Overall wine production:

• Wine Production for France by FRED
• Charting 3 Epic Collapses of French Wine Production (From 1830 – 1938) by Vinepair

Wine Blight:

• Wine Production for France by FRED
• Charting 3 Epic Collapses of French Wine Production (From 1830 – 1938) by Vinepair
• Wikipedia: Great French Wine Blight

1910 Riots:

• The Champagne Riots of 1910 and what Led to Them by Wine Frog
• The Champagne Riots of 1910 and how they Started
• Wikipedia: Champagne Riots

World War II:

• Champagne houses served Nazis ‘fizzy dishwater
• Wine and War Part III: Bordeaux
• Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure