The 2022 Hurricane Season

While I was busy obsessing over my 30 Day Map Challenge in November, CNN put out this map in a summary of the 2022 hurricane season.

It's interesting to see all the hurricane tracks on one map. While the season started out slowly, it finished with several memorable storms including Fiona, the strongest storm to ever hit Canada; Nicole, the first November hurricane in nearly 40 years and Ian, the most destructive storm of the year. Ian's huge rainfall amounts led to many deaths by drowning.

The full article can be seen here.
 

The Climate Impact of Your Neighborhood

This latest New York Times interactive map shows how people who live closer in to city centers have a relatively small carbon footprint, while those who live further out have some of the largest footprints in the nation.

While that may not be surprising by itself there are some other interesting takeaways from the article (you may be interrupted by their paywall if not a subscriber). One is that even in very dense neighborhoods like Manhattan's Upper East Side the climate footprint can be above average because wealthier people "fly more, have bigger apartments and buy more stuff"

Another interesting factor is how zoning restrictions have pushed people out of these denser neighborhoods into exurbs where they are forced to drive more and increase their carbon footprint. 

Another takeaway is that even when people drive in dense neighborhoods, they tend to drive fewer miles to get where they need to go. Finally, the article gives "props" to lower emission suburban areas like Aurora and Joliet in Illinois that have good transit and shopping options.

Mauna Loa Lava Maps

 Sure, there are cool livestreams of the Mauna Loa volcano you can watch, but even better, you can see live maps of the lava flow.

Here is yesterday's status map from the U.S. Geological Survey

The dark red in these maps shows the new lava flow from the last 24 hours. It is moving very slowly towards the main highway, mostly due to breakouts of lava upstream. The NOAA observatory has been inaccessible. For comparison, here is the November 29th map, two days into the first eruptions.

There is also an interactive map where you can zoom in and really see the details.