Bay Area Storm Watch(earth.nullschool.net)
earth.nullschool.net
Bay Area Storm Watch
http://earth.nullschool.net/#2014/12/11/0900Z/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-115.81,34.51,1154
16 comments
It took me a few mins to realize that this page is interactive. Press the "Earth" button to set time/date, move to current location, height of wind currents, overlay, etc.
It appears to be an interactive control for changing your laptop's fan speed.
Web 2.0: making your top-of-the-line i7 desktop feel slower than an 80s mainframe.
But at least you don't have to declare types on the variables! Such productivity!
But at least you don't have to declare types on the variables! Such productivity!
Web 2.0: making the computer work so the programmer doesn't have to. You get a beautiful, interactive visualization with near-real-time data that runs on every platform (even my phone!) with a single codebase.
That comment belongs to reddit with a very high karma count. I LOLed here.
Dr. Jeff Masters adds some color to this data on his blog[1]. Also note the second vortex off the Canadian coast[2].
[1] http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?en...
[2] http://earth.nullschool.net/#2014/12/11/0900Z/wind/surface/l...
[1] http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?en...
[2] http://earth.nullschool.net/#2014/12/11/0900Z/wind/surface/l...
Yeah almost right over me :(
I'm currently using a shop vac in the basement after a pretty good bit of flooding. We had a lot of rain all day yesterday maybe 100mm total.
We're used to it being -10C and snow not monsoon rains.
I'm currently using a shop vac in the basement after a pretty good bit of flooding. We had a lot of rain all day yesterday maybe 100mm total.
We're used to it being -10C and snow not monsoon rains.
I don't know why people are so worried about the lack of snow at this point. There is plenty of room in the reservoirs for rain at this point. Maybe later in the season the snow will become important, but at this point I think CA can store lots of liquid water
Some reservoirs can't be filled this early as the need to leave space for flood control, but the big ones have so much extra room I imagine they can store every drop.
Some reservoirs can't be filled this early as the need to leave space for flood control, but the big ones have so much extra room I imagine they can store every drop.
Here are the reservoir levels. http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp/getResGraphsMain.act...
It's because most of the rainwater will end up back in the sea via sewers, rivers, etc. Snow becomes snowmelt --which happens slowly so it does not become runoff but filters into aquifers, reservoirs, etc.
I don't think it works that way.
A few of the large California reservoirs, like the San Luis Reservoir and Lake Berryessa, get their water from storm runoff in mountains that don't typically accumulate much snow, but a large amount of the water storage in California comes from Sierra or Trinity snowpack.
Unfortunately, a lot of California storm drainage is designed to move the water to the ocean as quickly as possible, to prevent flooding. I think most of the rainfall in the Bay Area that doesn't soak into the ground will find its way to the delta or to the Bay rather than a reservoir.
Think of it this way: cumulative snowpack is a massive year-round reservoir in California. See e.g. http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article3505269....
A few of the large California reservoirs, like the San Luis Reservoir and Lake Berryessa, get their water from storm runoff in mountains that don't typically accumulate much snow, but a large amount of the water storage in California comes from Sierra or Trinity snowpack.
Unfortunately, a lot of California storm drainage is designed to move the water to the ocean as quickly as possible, to prevent flooding. I think most of the rainfall in the Bay Area that doesn't soak into the ground will find its way to the delta or to the Bay rather than a reservoir.
Think of it this way: cumulative snowpack is a massive year-round reservoir in California. See e.g. http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article3505269....
aaaargh those color schemes in [1] are horrible!
Cool (eh, hot?) and impressive visualization!
Don't know which was first, but it reminded me of the wind map from hint.fm, originating from 2012: http://hint.fm/wind/ . That one presents a nice black/white impression of wind conditions in the USA, whereas this visualization from Cameron displays a broad range of weather conditions around the globe with multiple visualization styles. Impressive what's possible with D3...
[Edit: oh, hint.fm was mentioned as inspiration on the GitHub page https://github.com/cambecc/earth.]
Don't know which was first, but it reminded me of the wind map from hint.fm, originating from 2012: http://hint.fm/wind/ . That one presents a nice black/white impression of wind conditions in the USA, whereas this visualization from Cameron displays a broad range of weather conditions around the globe with multiple visualization styles. Impressive what's possible with D3...
[Edit: oh, hint.fm was mentioned as inspiration on the GitHub page https://github.com/cambecc/earth.]
Thats not a storm, this is a storm: http://earth.nullschool.net/#2014/12/11/0900Z/wind/surface/l...
I recall visiting my uncle in Arizona for Thanksgiving one year. In the afternoon, it rained maybe one centimeter. It was the first thing on the evening news.
First time I was in California, it was September. I get off the plane and the recruiter picks me up in a convertible.
"See that cloud?" he points.
"Yep"
"That's the first cloud I've seen in almost three months"
I found that a strange thing to say.
A couple of months later, I get off work and go back to the apartment. I'm watching Jeoprady and they do one of these "Action News Storm Team 7" break-ins. They cut to the meterologist who's pointing out breaking news on the triple doplar jetstream radar or whatnot.
It's rain. Looks like a tiny shower, maybe 500 yards across.
The guy says "Looks like this storm will be headed across I5 very soon, so motorist should be extremely cautious"
"See that cloud?" he points.
"Yep"
"That's the first cloud I've seen in almost three months"
I found that a strange thing to say.
A couple of months later, I get off work and go back to the apartment. I'm watching Jeoprady and they do one of these "Action News Storm Team 7" break-ins. They cut to the meterologist who's pointing out breaking news on the triple doplar jetstream radar or whatnot.
It's rain. Looks like a tiny shower, maybe 500 yards across.
The guy says "Looks like this storm will be headed across I5 very soon, so motorist should be extremely cautious"
a small snow storm will debilitate the valley and bay area... stuff like that just doesn't happen too often here.
On the i5 rain the threat is real on first rains as the roads have trace oil that will wash off and cars will shed months of carwash soap residue.
On the i5 rain the threat is real on first rains as the roads have trace oil that will wash off and cars will shed months of carwash soap residue.
I've heard that before - is it urban legend, or is there some truth to it?
It's in the CA DMV handbook that the roads are most dangerous in "first rain" conditions. You get tested on it!
Sure; I've answered that question on that test. It seemed odd at the time, to find an urban legend in the DMV test.
In fairness, we get like 20cm of rainfall per year. :)
Big beast brewing in the Pacific:
http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orth...
http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orth...
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Love this visualization. Ben usually references it every day on https://www.youtube.com/user/Suspicious0bservers
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Very pretty. But, despite what the web site shows, Silicon Valley is currently at 63F/clear/calm. The site shows wind speeds of 36km/h. Not sure where they get their wind data, but it's clearly low resolution.
Looking at the URL and having poked around the site in the past, I believe this link is a forecast model for 1:00 am PST on 12/11 (an hour from this post, and 2 or 3 hours from your post).
My understanding is that much of the visualization is based on modeling with real weather inputs, not actual current weather conditions. In other words, recent weather measurements feed into a calculation of current and near future weather conditions. I could be quite mistaken though.
The credits list the NOAA Environmental Modeling Center [1] as the source for weather data, that would be a great place to start for further clarification.
[1] http://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/
My understanding is that much of the visualization is based on modeling with real weather inputs, not actual current weather conditions. In other words, recent weather measurements feed into a calculation of current and near future weather conditions. I could be quite mistaken though.
The credits list the NOAA Environmental Modeling Center [1] as the source for weather data, that would be a great place to start for further clarification.
[1] http://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/
In meteorology, surface wind is actually measured at 10m. Also, the link is referring to a forecast for tomorrow AM.
SF is so calm right now; i can't believe all the storm build up; we'll see at tomorrow's commute
Yep, it is a few minutes past midnight and I can hear the light rustling of trees. No rain or anything 'stormy' yet.
Several units at my office have told everyone to work from home tomorrow, hopefully that's happening at a lot of places.
The Valley may be calm but winds are picking up fast in the city. Either way -- the visuals are beautiful on this page.
Windy in the East Bay but still no rain. Lots of school closures in anticipation: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-schools-...
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It's referring to a higher altitude than the surface.
What is your current altitude?
I am on first floor in Sunnyvale and not much wind. What is my altitude.
Taking back what i said. Power gone. Winds picking up speed.
"Global warming isn't real because I was cold today! Also great news: World hunger is over because I just ate." — Stephen Colbert
This doesn't have anything to do with the commenter above: they're looking at the wind speed for their area, not the wind in alaska. If the wind speed on the site is radically different from the speed outside their window, then coming to the conclusion that the site's wind data is low resolution is perfectly valid.
Right. Here's Bay Area data based on wind speeds at 20 locations, including all the airports.
http://www.met.sjsu.edu/cgi-bin/wind/windbin.cgi
There's even a streaklines display, as in this article, although it's an old Java applet.
http://www.met.sjsu.edu/cgi-bin/wind/windbin.cgi
There's even a streaklines display, as in this article, although it's an old Java applet.
No beautiful graphics, but the stacked graphs
and draggable index line seem information rich:
http://www.wunderground.com/US/CA/Sunnyvale.html
http://www.wunderground.com/US/CA/Sunnyvale.html
Look very nice on Mobile Safari, gestures and visualization is awesome!
Looks like the storm affected archive.org's datacenter:
https://twitter.com/internetarchive
https://twitter.com/internetarchive
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I would love to see someone use this visualisation as the background to a "the weather in X is" mobile weather app
Flying from LAX to SEA tomorrow evening... hope I'm not stranded at the airport :(
If you manage to leave, that's going to be one hell of a takeoff.
Cancelled my flight from SEA to SFO, which was supposed to land at 9AM Thursday. Pretty sure whether indefinite delays or cancellation I wasn't gonna get on that plane.
Doing the opposite; SFO to SEA, but on Friday afternoon. Should be no problem, but you never know with SFO. I've personally had good luck with that airport but delays seem SO common.
Where do people in the bay area generally get their news?
this looks fantastic.
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