Stormgasm
Home · Archive · RSS · Mobile · Submit · Ask · Sharing the science behind the weather and Earth with the world one Stormgasm at a time. Unless stated otherwise, these images are not mine. If your image appears here and you do not want it here, please let me know and it will be removed. Other than that, let's chase!
Surface analysis map of the Great Blizzard of 1888

Surface analysis map of the Great Blizzard of 1888

Lightning strikes per year

Lightning strikes per year

Okay, I love maps and here is a really old map from 1901 depicting the distribution of rainfall throughout Japan.

Okay, I love maps and here is a really old map from 1901 depicting the distribution of rainfall throughout Japan.

56 years of tornado tracks by F-scale (and EF-scale since Feb. 2007).
It bugs me that this map is not cartographically correct. What kind of color scheme is that? My GIS professor would probably pitch a fit is she saw something like this.

56 years of tornado tracks by F-scale (and EF-scale since Feb. 2007).

It bugs me that this map is not cartographically correct. What kind of color scheme is that? My GIS professor would probably pitch a fit is she saw something like this.

Map of the average annual precipitation for California. I made this in Cartography. By the way, we had to make a logo for the class and I wanted to be associated with the SPC. I don’t actually work for them (one can dream though) nor was this map made by them. It’s simply the logo that I chose to use for my maps.

Map of the average annual precipitation for California. I made this in Cartography. By the way, we had to make a logo for the class and I wanted to be associated with the SPC. I don’t actually work for them (one can dream though) nor was this map made by them. It’s simply the logo that I chose to use for my maps.

For my cartography fans out there!

For my cartography fans out there!

Semi-important events that are semi-relevant to meteorology: August 16

1650 - Vincenzo Coronelli is born. He is a well known cartographer and cosmographer.

1906 - An estimated 8.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Valparaíso, Chile. 3,886 people are killed.

1907 - James Hector, a well known Scottish geologist, naturalist, and surgeon, dies. He is most well known for going on the Palliser Expedition, which was a British expedition through the prairies and wilderness of Canada from 1857 to 1860. The purpose was to discover new plant species as well as a possible path for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He also did extensive work in New Zealand.

1957 - Irving Langmuir dies. Originally a chemist, in his later years his interests turned toward meteorology and atmospheric science. He theorized about cloud seeding in that one could, theoretically, introduce dry ice or iodide into a really moist cloud that has a low temperature in order to activate precipitation. The Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research in New Mexico is named after him.

1989 - Trading in the Toronto stock market comes to a stop when a geomagnetic storm created by a solar flare affects micro chips.

Weather map from 1871!

Weather map from 1871!

Old weather map from the Hong Kong Observatory from 1909!

Old weather map from the Hong Kong Observatory from 1909!