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Animated Tornado Tree Rings

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Why we love it

We love it when cartography makes sense of complicated data. This map delivers, showing thousands of tornados averaged over time and space to reveal seasonal and regional patterns. The legend uses color to denote month, and size to show tornado intensity. We see the timing of peak tornado activity through animation. The rings, color-coded by season, keep us fixed on the map instead of the legend. We learn that some places have year-round tornado risk, while others are limited to summer months. A looping animated GIF emphasize the fact that tornados occur as a cyclical, annual process.

Why it works

Animated data really makes this map work. It draws focus beyond individual circles to the aggregate effect of circles synchronizing, blooming, and changing in waves. Just as when we watch a flock of birds, we no longer see individual birds. We abstract them into a simpler, larger visual object—a flock. With animated maps, hundreds of disparate symbols become a single, organic shape that shows both location and rate of change. This map is a great example of how animation can clarify a complicated dataset and nuance our understanding of geographic processes playing out over space and time.

Important steps

  • Join features

    Rather than map raw data, cartographers often use GIS to merge or join features to show larger patterns, calculating counts or averages and other statistical measures expressed by area, time, or per capita.
    Find tools to join features

  • Spatial aggregation with hexagons

    There is no single best amount of spatial aggregation. Use ArcGIS Pro to experiment with the size of the hexagon mesh. Here, the optimal size was roughly metropolitan-city-sized areas that balanced fine detail with regional patterns.
    Get the generate tessellation tool
    Why hexagons tool reference

  • Use logical color schemes

    Color families mirror the seasonal progression—fresh springtime vermillion, lush summertime greens, cooler autumnal reds, and cold wintertime blues. Hues were inspired by the palette of film director Wes Anderson.
    Vary symbology by color

  • Add a vignette

    Add a vignette to the whole map to soften the edges while focusing the area of interest to the center of the city.
    Steal these vignettes
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Requirements

  • Data and software

    Data from NOAA Storm Prediction Center. Minimal hillshade context sourced from ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World’s terrain service. Software used: ArcGIS Pro
    NOAA storm data

  • Analysis

    The historic tornado coordinates table was converted to lines via XY To Line geoprocessing tool. Lines and attributes were divided into 12 layers (one for each month), and fed into aggregation hexagons via spatial join for weighted tornado intensity value per cell.

  • Time

    Parsing, spatial aggregation, symbology exploration, and layout creation took around half a day. Most of this time was in visual exploration of symbology options for the overlapping layers and ensuring consistent settings.
    Read the blog
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Tips and tricks

  • Show temporal context

    To help smooth the animation and provide temporal context, each month is surrounded by slightly faded rings of the months just before and after. When we see large size difference in those context rings, we can infer things are changing quickly.

  • Experiment with spatial aggregation

    When there is far too much data to map, such as thousands of tornado tracks, use spatial aggregation (also known as, binning) to count how many events occur in a standard area such as a square or hexagon.
    Learn about spatial binning

  • Overall patterns, not specific rates

    Animations move quickly. The minimalist design of this legend encourages us to relax and focus on overall patterns rather than try to retrieve specific rates.
    Use graduated symbols
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John Nelson, map author

Map Author

John Nelson

I have way too much fun looking for ways to understand and visually present data, engage others, and write about it. Otherwise, I’m chasing around toddlers and wrangling chickens. Life is good.

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