Stunning map showing every recorded hurricane path since 1851

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a tropical storm and hurricane data archive that stretches back to 1851. But looking at each storm individually doesn’t have nearly as much impact as seeing them all projected onto a map at once. Data visualization expert John Nelson combined data on historical storms’ paths and intensities to create this stunning image, where the color of a dot represents that storm’s intensity.



Check out also this one, visible on the APOD:



Source and hi-res map: Flickr's IDVSolutions photoalbum

reply to post by elevenaugust


Oh wow. Great find! I knew that some areas were always hit a lot harder than some other places, but the map really shows us exactly where. It makes it a lot easier to understand why the USA says it wants to be able to control the weather. S&F for you

Thats really cool, I would have thought Asia, would of had an equally large amount of tracks as well, unless they didnt start tracking their Cyclones until later on

Eye of the hurricane indeed

reply to post by elevenaugust


The South Has no Wind Barriers ....( Mountains )..

That would help them a ton....Maybe that should be the future project.

Operation Build South Mountain. That way they don't have their cities torn apart every year.

Interesting. I never thought of Australia as being someplace hit by hurricanes. I learn something new everyday I guess.

reply to post by LucidDreamer85


As nutty as that sounds, perhaps you have something there that's worth exploring. There are some innovative ideas put out by people who are trying to find uses for old tires and plastic, for example. If the will were there, I bet the current situation could be improved.