Hurricane tracker from MSNBC
While browsing for examples of complex online mapping applications, I ran across this hurricane tracker. While I’m not sure I found anything I can use directly, and despite a few nitpicks (let me move the floating panes, and puh-lease put panning and zoom controls in the usual places and formats!), there is a lot of good here.
First of course is the news interest (check out Hannah, Ike, and Josephine under the “more” link). But most impressive to me is the number of variables they are able to show simultaneously, without overloading the viewer: category of storm over time, speed of storm (more distance between symbols = greater speed), wind speed, and direction. These are all visible in the static version, like you can see in this screenshot.
But to really get the feel of it, load and re-load the screen and watch the hurricane unfold. Watch it move faster and slower along its path and watch the cloud spin faster and slower. Watch the “current position” symbol get larger and smaller. Cool… and scary if you live on the Gulf Coast. (Take care everybody!)