Hurricane Michael: the best news storytelling
The hurricane trackers
“Hurricane Tracker”, Wall Street Journal
A cool tracker that is displayed as a widget or here as a full-fledged page which follows every recent storm in the world. The Journal has also made some very clear infographics.
“A city-by-city forecast”, The Washington Post
(Above showing data for the “Leslie” cyclone in Europe)
Another tracker that shows more granularly the geographical impact of the storm-force winds, but is maybe more complicated to read.
“Tracking Hurricane Michael”, The New York Times
A more simple visualization.
On the down side — even though it might seem obvious — I feel that these 3 trackers don’t explain clearly enough the intensity scale of the winds (which one is the more devastating? Tropical-storm level? Hurricane 4 level?). Clearer labels could help here.
The other stuff
“One Mile of Devastation in Florida”, The New York Times
A standout piece: the Times built a panorama visualization of the Mexico Beach coast from multiple photos, which slides horizontally on scroll. Feels weird at first, but definitely a cool idea. They also mapped precisely which buildings had been destroyed or damaged!
“Before and after images of Hurricane Michael”, The Washington Post
“See Neighbors Rescue a Couple Trapped in Their Collapsing Home”, The New York Times
An interesting integration of user-generated footage (here in vertical format), which was broken down in small bits to give more depth to the story, and completed with original photography & reporting.
“How Hurricane Michael got so strong, so quickly”, Axios
Two simple charts with labels on hover, in classic Axios style.
“Hurricane Michael was a storm for the ages”, Axios
A pretty interesting data viz, which encapsulates several variables (year, month, wind speed, duration, hurricane category) and manages to stay understandable.
“How to Tell if a Hurricane Is Headed Your Way”, Wall Street Journal

The Journal deciphers the computer models behind hurricane forecasts, with simple infographics.
“The 10 most mind-boggling Hurricane Michael visuals”, The Washington Post
A nerdy but quite catchy perspective on the phenomenon.
Also published on Medium.
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