If by now you’re still doubting that Sandy is massive, take a gander at that map of the country’s wind above. About a third of the country’s wind is being pulled into a massive whirlpool by Sandy’s force, and it’s all at a pretty high rate of sustained speed. (Thicker lines indicate faster wind.)
That image is a still from this incredible wind map by data artists Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg. Their map takes data from the National Digital Forecast Database which is updated every hour with current speeds and projections in three to six hour intervals, and turns it into a beautifully simplistic visual in near-real time. The pair also have a gallery of stills that showcases the incredible random nature of wind. March, it seems, was a particularly wacky month.