Skip to main content

Tools & Interactives

Thumbnail image for Tools & Interactives - Heavy summer rains flood Peru

Compare the before and after images of heavy rains and floods in Peru in February 2017. The pale tan of the normally semi-arid coastal landscape is transformed by the green-up of vegetation.

View this tool
Thumbnail image for Tools & Interactives - Capetown reservoirs during drought

Compare before and after infrared-enhanced satellite images to see the impact three years of below-average rain has had on reservoirs around Cape Town, South Africa. Water levels have drastically fallen.

View this tool
Thumbnail image for Tools & Interactives - Unusual lack of winter sea ice

Compare the extent of Bering Strait shorefast ice in 2018 to more typical conditions. Shorefast ice is necessary for subsistence hunting and fishing, and offers protection from dangerous ice debris being driven onshore.

View this tool
Thumbnail image for Tools & Interactives - Below average winter snow in 2018

Grab and drag the slider to compare Suomi VIIRS satellite images of the snowpack across the western United States in 2017 and 2018. Snow levels in 2018 were below average and much lower than 2017.

View this tool
Thumbnail image for Tools & Interactives - Cyclone Mora, elevation vs population

Grab and drag the slider to compare elevation and population density images for countries around the Bay of Bengal to understand the significant risk they face from cyclones.

View this tool
Thumbnail image for Tools & Interactives - ENSO subsurface ocean temperatures

Compare subsurface waters in spring 2014 and 2015. Despite the similarities, 2014's impressive warm anomaly failed to evolve into El Niño, while 2015's slightly smaller anomaly did.

View this tool
Thumbnail image for Tools & Interactives - Historic Missouri River flooding

Compare March 3, 2018 to March 22, 2019 to see the extent of farmland flooding near Nebraska City, Nebraska, as rain and snowmelt swelled the Missouri River during a billion-dollar disaster event.

View this tool
Thumbnail image for Tools & Interactives - Historic date of first snow

When does the climate record say you can expect the season's first snow? This map shows the historic date by which there's a 50% chance of at least 0.1" of snow on the ground, based on snowfall data from 1981-2010.

View this tool