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Sandy’s vortex

Hint.fm’s wind map has been producing some incredible imagery of the wind patterns of the United States throughout Hurricane Sandy. But this is as amazing as it is disturbing:

Screen cap of the winds in the Mid-Atlantic region during the onslaught of Hurricane Sandy. Credit: hint.fm

Now keep in mind, this is simply a mashup of wind data, and not a radar map or a satellite image. But the pattern of Sandy is very clear. The white streaks indicate wind speeds of 30 mph, but the truth is that winds are much, much faster than that, with gusts up to 80 mph in some locations.

And that vortex is situated right in the area I grew up and not far at all from where I currently live. But it also means that there are a lot of folks I know, and many more I don’t know, without power tonight.

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And the wind cries Sandy

There are many ways of tracking Hurricane Sandy’s impact on the eastern United States, but look out any window right now and the first thing you’ll notice is the wind. Tree branches are blowing and when the gusts kick up, they really start bending.

There are plenty of sites out there to track Hurricane Sandy’s progress (for lack of a better word) but this interactive wind map of the United States has the best representation I’ve seen yet:

Wind Map as of October 29, 2012 10:59 am EDT. Image credit hint.fm

Click that link and take a look – the map is an animation of the predicted wind speeds and direction across the continental United States. It gets updated once per hour and the result is a mesmerizing look at something that is otherwise invisible.

You can really get a good look at the wind activity in the east, and it will be interesting to see it evolve over time. Meanwhile, just gazing at the animation, I cannot help but think of a certain Jimi Hendrix song (with “Sandy” substituted for “Mary” 🙂 )

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Sandy’s death spiral

As I write this, my home state of Maryland is under a state of emergency, along with the entire Mid-Atlantic region and New England. And there’s a good reason why, check this out:

That’s a time-lapse view of Hurricane Sandy as seen from geostationary orbit – 22,300 miles (35,800 km) above Earth – by NOAA’s GOES-14 satellite. The images were taken once per minute from 7:15 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Tiem on October 28, 2012. The result is about 12 hours from sunup to sundown compressed into a 30-second video.

You can really start to see an eye develop around the 20-second mark as it makes its way out to sea, gaining strength as she goes.

As amazing as it is, Sandy is not to be trifled with, so please keep an eye on the National Hurricane Center’s website for updates. I’ll be doing the same, as we appear to be right along the path of Sandy as she comes through. Stay dry!

NASA animation by Kevin Ward, using images from NOAA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies.