This interactive map created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration serves as a highly useful tool in understanding where rising sea levels are occurring throughout the US and their effects. Using a vertical slider this website visualizes how sea levels ranging from 1 to 10 feet could affect coastal areas. It also includes information about the varying risk levels of counties along the coast in regards to flooding and possible damage. On a more local scale, the website allows users to select “local scenarios” to observe the projected sea levels for that specific area by year. In Richmond, our current intermediate level is approximately 0.5 feet, however according to the map, by 2100, this number is estimated to be 3.87 feet. Additionally, this map provides information about high tide flooding and the alteration of marsh areas over time

This information on this site can be used for both educational and preventative purposes. Data on what areas will suffer the most from rising sea levels and the approximate timeframe for when areas will become “high risk” can be used by both the local and national governments to create plans for mitigating these consequences. Not only will this provide a baseline for when and when actions must be taken, such as building floodwalls or elevating surrounding infrastructure, but I also helps people visualize this rapidly growing threat. Illustrating how many people and ecosystems are at risk due to rising water levels is an extremely effective way to get people to understand the severity of this situation, regardless of one’s education on climate change.

https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/

This website tracks present lightning strikes and includes a database of past lightning, using colored dots on a world map to show the locations of strikes. The map on the homepage updates almost in real-time, with a delay of only a second or two, allowing you to see lightning as it strikes in Europe, Oceania, or North America. You can also use the website to see past lightning strikes in each of the regions, and you can view this information either as still images or in animations that show the lightning throughout a given day. In addition to documenting the lightning strikes themselves, the website also keeps track of the density of strikes, or how many strikes are occurring in close proximity to each other, and information on the the number of strikes that have occurred within any month in 2011 or later and for each full year in 2011 or later is also available.

The content of this website relates to our course in that it allows for a visual representation of storm systems through the electrical charges they produce. For example, when I looked at the real-time animation, the enormous number of lightning strikes occurring in the Gulf of Mexico indicated there was probably a large storm or storm system in the Gulf at that time. Similar evidence suggested to me there probably was a storm occurring in far Southeastern Australia. This website, examined over a period of time, would allow for an increased understanding of the trends affecting the development of storms likely to produce lightning. Such storms may be from larger systems, such as midlatitude cyclones, or they could be the result of isolated convection patterns in areas such as beaches, cities, and cropland. Nevertheless, the representation of lightning overlaid on a map allows for an understanding of where lightning-producing events tend to occur, and in which locations larger storm systems are likely to cause lightning and in which locations it is more likely that an isolated event is the cause. Additionally, the graphs available on lightning patterns over a period of months or years provide the opportunity to observe any trends in lightning strikes that may take place over time and to determine in which parts of the year lightning tends to strike the most.