As part of development at the Esri R&D Center in DC , we've been working on new ways to visualize large amounts of data on a map. Large datasets present several challenges. Simply how to render that much data is one issue, but also how do we visualize large datasets when throwing millions of a points on a map no longer makes any sense to the end user. We want to look at a map of data and understand something about that data immediately. Weather offers an incredible variety

The first half of March 2015 recorded zero tornadoes in the United States. The only time this has happened in the last 65 years was in March of 1969. Only 17 times has the start of March seen less than 10 tornadoes between 1950 and 2013. The 63 year average is 27.66 tornadoes nationwide through the first 15 days of March. Despite a slow start, this isn't necessarily telling for how the severe weather season as a whole will play out. In 1969, for example, the year ended with 608 tornadoes – whi

It seems like with each new storm comes a new way to visualize that storm. Today a monster Nor'Easter is cranking off the New England coast, and is proving to be quite a wonder to visualize. Your browser does not support the video element. Your browser does not support the video element. On the ground sustained winds in excess of 50mph in combination with heavy snow is making travel treacherous along the coast and up into Canada. . . > White out conditions around Spruce Lake between

Last week United States Tornadoes put together a post on how "tornadoes progress across the United States throughout the year". This inspired me to dig through the data (every confirmed tornado since 1950) and experiment with different ways to visualize that data. While the original intent was to show the progression across the U.S. throughout the year in a different way than US Tors -- that idea morphed a bit as I started playing with client-side aggregation and s