Rain and Snow Effects for Mapbox

Mapbox GL now offers the option to add dynamic rain and snow effects to your maps. These new visual weather effects use particle animations to create realistic precipitation on any Mapbox GL map.

You can easily add these effects to your maps using the following functions in your JavaScript code:

map.setRain or map.setSnow

Both the rain and snow effects come with several customizable parameters that allow you to fine-tune their appearance. These include:

• Density: Controls the number of particles.
• Opacity: Adjusts the transparency of the effect.
• Speed: Defines how fast the particles move.
• Color: Modifies the color of raindrops and snowflakes.
• Size: Changes the size of the particles.
• Direction: Determines the movement direction of the precipitation.

You can experiment with these parameters in the Rain and Snow Playground. Once you’ve created an effect you like, you can copy and paste the corresponding JavaScript code into your project. Additionally, these parameters can be adjusted dynamically. For example, you can modify the particle animations in real-time based on live wind direction data for a given location.

Maplibre Snow Effect

With a little help from ChatGPT I was able to create a snowflake effect for Maplibre in under five minutes. If you want to use this effect yourself then you can clone the code my map's Glitch page.

The USA is Closing for Business

This animated map from the Lowy Institute shows whether the USA or China was the larger trading partner for countries around the world each year this century (up to 2023). The map provides a stark visualization of the economic shift away from the United States and toward China in the 21st century.

According to the Lowy Institute, around "70 per cent of economies trade more with China than they do with America, and more than half of all economies now trade twice as much with China compared to the United States." At the beginning of this century the situation was very different, when more than 80 percent of countries traded more with the USA than with China.

The map allows users to view the largest trading partner for each country (limited to China and the United States) in terms of two-way trade, imports, or exports. In terms of exports, the United States remains a larger export destination than China for more than half of all economies. However, given Donald Trump’s constant threats to impose tariffs on other countries, it is evident that he aims to weaken the United States' appeal as an export destination. What is less clear is how he plans to increase the United States' own exports.

Where's the Gulf of Mexico?

The Google Maps team has introduced a new 'Coding Challenge' for prospective members of the department. It is essential that all employees of Google Geo are able to track down and deport illegal place-name labels from the company's flagship mapping platform.

If you are in the process of applying for a position at Google Maps or are interested in joining the team in the future, you can prepare by familiarizing yourself with Google's MAGA Map of the World.

On the MAGA Map of the World the Gulf of Mexico has mysteriously disappeared - as if it has somehow been forewarned of Google’s decision to deport it from the map. As a potential employee of Google's Department of Geographical Corrections, your challenge is to track down the missing Gulf of Mexico. You have just 60 seconds to complete this Google coding challenge!

Automatically Mapping YouTube Videos

YouTube is an incredible resource for discovering new places, whether through travel vlogs, historical documentaries, or guided walking tours. However, manually noting down locations mentioned in a video can be time-consuming and inefficient. What if there were an easier way to extract and map these locations automatically?

Using the allStara Video AI

The allStara Video AI offers several features to analyze and extract information from YouTube videos. One available option is to "extract locations from a video and save them as a map for trip planning."

Using the AI is simple - just enter the YouTube URL of a video and press the 'Start Locations Extraction' button. allStara then generates a GeoJSON file containing all the locations mentioned in the video and provides a shareable link to a Leaflet.js-powered map of the extracted locations.

While allStara seems to work well with the short default video URL provided, I had no success in two attempts with longer videos (one was 5 minutes and 8 seconds long, and the other was 26 minutes and 5 seconds long). In both cases, allStara took over five minutes to process the videos but ultimately returned empty results, failing to extract any locations.

I love the idea of mapping locations mentioned in videos, but unfortunately, allStara seems to be inconsistent. Going forward, it would also be beneficial to include timestamps for each location in the generated GeoJSON file.

Using DeepSeek

Since my attempt to use allStara to map John Rogers' walking tour of Clerkenwell was unsuccessful, I decided to try DeepSeek to generate my own map.

1. DeepSeek prompt:- 'Extract all the locations mentioned in this video transcript (most should be in London) and then create a GeoJSON file with all the locations.  - {video transcript}


2. In about 40 seconds DeepSeek created a GeoJSON file with the coordinates of 38 locations it had extracted from the video.


3. I then copy & pasted the GeoJSON text into geojson.io to create the map (shown below) displaying the locations mentioned in John Roger's walking tour of Clerkenwell.

The New World Order

Press Release: Google Unveils "New World Order Google Map"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: [Press Office]

Phone: [123-456-7890]

Email: [press@google.com]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – [1/28/2025] – Last night, Quisling, the parent company of Google, announced a bold and controversial change to its flagship product, Google Maps. We revealed that the "Gulf of Mexico" would be renamed to the "Gulf of America,". However, the Trump administration has deemed the update insufficient and pushed for a broader revision of global naming conventions on the platform.

In response, Google has launched what it is calling the "New World Order Google Map," a reimagined cartographic experience that reflects an aggressive overhaul of geopolitical labels and place names to align with evolving administrative demands.

We take feedback seriously and aim to ensure our platform serves the needs of our users, including governments and administrations worldwide. The New World Order Google Map represents our commitment to a more dynamic and responsive mapping experience that reflects contemporary perspectives on global geography.

You can now preview New World Order Google Map for yourself.

The MAGA Plugin for Interactive Maps

The MAGA plug-in for the Maplibre mapping library must now be used to ensure that all maps comply with the geographical dictats of the Orange Overlord.

To conform to the new geographical proclamations of the Trump Ministry of Geographical Truth, please ensure that you follow the steps below before publishing any new maps:

Step 1: Include maga.js in Your Project

• Download the maga.js file from the link above.
• Place the maga.js file in your project directory (e.g., in the same folder as your index.html file).

Step 2: Add the Script to Your HTML

Include the maga.js file in your index.html file by adding the following line just before the closing </body> tag: <script src="maga.js"></script>

Step 3: Initialize the MAGA Plugin

The maga.js plugin will automatically initialize itself when the script is loaded. It will start animating place-name labels on the map based on the default configuration. 

Step 4: Customize the Default Values

You can customize the default configurations by editing the placeNames array to your own values and by editing the country name in the setLayoutProperty.

Failure to comply with the new geographical standards will result in immediate re-education at the Ministry of Cartographic Corrections. Remember, the Overlord's vision of the world is the only truth, and any deviation from this truth is an act of thoughtcrime. By using the MAGA plug-in, you are not only ensuring compliance but also contributing to a brighter, more unified future - where every map reflects the glorious reality as decreed by the Trump Ministry of Geographical Truth.

Long live the Orange Overlord! Long live the truth!

Update: According to Reuters the quisling Google has announced it will be the first company to comply with the diktats of the Orange Overlord. It has announced that the "Gulf of Mexico" will be changed to "Gulf of America" on Google Maps. 

Dive into Your Maritime History

The marine area of the UK has played a pivotal role in shaping the country's history. The seas surrounding the UK are home to a wealth of historical treasures, including submerged prehistoric landscapes, shipwrecks, crashed aircraft, and maritime industrial structures. Unfortunately the historical collections, which document these sites, are dispersed across various government organizations, universities, museums, and archives in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The Unpath’d Waters Portal is a new online interface that, for the first time, enables users to access these disparate marine collections through a single, shared, and cross-searchable online catalogue. By consolidating these diverse datasets in one place, the portal allows users to uncover and study underwater artifacts and sites more effectively than ever before.

How the Portal Works

The portal provides a wealth of information about the UK's maritime past, including data on shipwreck sites, maritime archaeology, coastal defenses, maritime structures such as docks and harbors, and more. It is designed to help researchers and the general public discover and explore the UK’s fascinating maritime history. 

One of the portal’s most exciting features is its interactive map. Users can zoom in on the map and search the collections by location. As you pan around the UK and its surrounding waters, the map automatically updates to display all markers within the current view. Clicking on these markers reveals detailed information about the selected historical features.

The map is an invaluable resource for discovering more about local maritime history. For example, this morning, I used the portal to explore the historical heritage of the River Thames in East London. I discovered several nearby historical sites that I plan to visit in person in the coming weeks.

Your Local Business Chatbots

Mapchat: Exploring AI-Powered Conversations with Local Businesses

Mapchat is a new interactive map that enables users to chat with AI-powered chatbots connected to businesses in their local area.

Simply zoom in on a location on Mapchat, press the 'Search Map' button, and markers will appear, pinpointing local businesses. Then, by clicking on any of these markers, you can initiate a conversation with an AI chatbot representing the business.

Why Chat with a Local Business Chatbot?

When I first encountered Mapchat, my immediate thought was: why? Why would I want to chat with an AI chatbot for a local business? However, on further reflection, I realized that if the AI chatbot could provide accurate and relevant answers, it could be an incredibly useful tool for addressing customer queries.

According to the introductory blog post from Every AI, Introducing Map-Chats: A New Era of Global Conversations with Businesses, Powered by Every AI, Mapchat allows "users to connect to businesses in real-time, interact with AI-powered chatbots, and get personalized, efficient responses - no matter the time zone or language barrier."

This makes a lot of sense. Using Mapchat, customers should be able to find useful information tailored to their shopping needs. To test this, I decided to try chatting with the AI chatbot of my local Sainsbury's supermarket. Here's how it went:

Me: 'Are you open?'

Mapchat AI: 'I am available and ready to respond to your questions 24/7, as long as our system is functioning properly! If you have any questions about Cookie Settings or any other topic, feel free to ask, and I'll do my best to provide a helpful response.'

Me: 'No, are you open for me to come and shop?'

Mapchat AI: 'I'm afraid I won't be able to facilitate physical transactions or have a storefront. However, I can assist you with ... guidance on managing your cookie settings if needed.'

Me: 'Do you have gochujang in stock?'

Mapchat AI: 'Unfortunately, our database doesn't seem to have any direct information about your store's inventory or products, including whether or not you carry gochujang.'

At that point I gave up.

My experience improved significantly when I tried a smaller business, a local bakery named Signorelli.

Me: 'What is your menu?'

Mapchat AI: 'Welcome to Signorelli! Our menu is a reflection of our passion for Italian-inspired baking and delicious food. Here are some highlights: (followed by a long list of cakes and breads on sale)'

Me: 'Do you sell gluten free bread?'

Mapchat AI: 'Yes, we do offer gluten-free options at Signorelli. While our traditional Italian-inspired baked goods are made with yeast and contain wheat flour, we also have a variety of gluten-free alternatives available. Would you like me to recommend some specific gluten-free bread options from our menu?'

Based on my limited testing, Mapchat can be very helpful - at times. However, at other times, its responses can be unhelpful and / or irrelevant.

Use Map Labels!

My main criticism of Mapchat isn't the occasional irrelevant response - the Mapchat AI can and should improve with time. Instead, what I find most frustrating is Mapchat's reliance on unlabelled markers to show the locations of businesses, rather than using map labels with their actual names.

The lack of labels forces users to either know the precise location of a business beforehand or waste time clicking on every marker until they find what they’re looking for. Adding filtering options (e.g., restaurants, grocery stores, clothing retailers) would also significantly enhance usability, making it easier to search for specific types of businesses.

Biographical Mapping

If you've ever dreamed of walking in the footsteps of your favorite historical figures, then Maptale is the map for you. This new platform lets you explore the life journeys of significant historical and contemporary figures, as laid out on an interactive map.

What Maptale Offers

At its heart, Maptale is a collection of mapped biographies, with each map showcasing the life journey of a notable individual through the significant locations that defined their story. For instance, selecting Abraham Lincoln from the "History and Wars" category allows you to explore locations such as the birthplace of the 16th President of the United States, his family’s farms, his marriage home, the White House, and the Lincoln Tomb, where he is laid to rest.

Maptale’s approach is inclusive - which means that users can upload their own maps, to visualize the life journeys of their own heros and heroines. These custom user maps add a community-driven aspect to the platform. It should also help in ensuring that there is a wide selection of notable individuals whose life journeys can be explored on Maptale.

Improving Maptale

One feature that seems to be missing from Maptale, and which I believe would enhance the platform significantly, is a universal map displaying all the locations in its database, encompassing the lives of all the individuals mapped so far. This consolidated view would allow users to uncover the famous connections in their own neighborhoods. It could help transform Maptale into a fantastic tool for local exploration and educational discovery.

Also See

Notable People Map - a map showing the birthplaces of the most "notable people" around the world.

GeoGuessing Reimagined

World Guesser is yet another alternative to the ever-popular GeoGuessr Street View game.

Like GeoGuessr, World Guesser drops you into a random location and asks you to guess where you are based solely on the clues you can find in Google’s Street View imagery. The gameplay is divided into two main phases:

Investigate:

This is where the detective work happens. Navigate through the surroundings to analyze clues. Look at architectural styles, read signs in different languages, and study the geography of the area. For example, a desert landscape might hint at North Africa or the Middle East, while lush tropical greenery could point to Southeast Asia or South America.

Guess:

After gathering clues, you mark your guess on the world map. The closer your guess is to the actual location, the more points you earn.

Why It Stands Out

One of the best features of World Guesser is its accessibility. The game is entirely free to play, with no hidden subscriptions or paywalls. You can dive into unlimited rounds without creating an account, making it easy to start playing right away.

If you find World Guesser too easy (you won’t), then you’re ready for the exceedingly challenging EarthGuessr. EarthGuessr provides a refreshing twist and a whole new perspective on the ‘geoguessing’ format.

EarthGuessr challenges players to explore five random locations on Earth as seen from above. Instead of navigating Street View, you zoom and pan through satellite imagery to identify your location. This aerial vantage point introduces an entirely new layer of deduction, as you’re now challenged to identify locations purely based on the landscapes and geographical features visible from above.

In other words, EarthGuessr is very, very challenging!

If you want even more geoguessing fun then check out these Six Free Alternatives to GeoGuessr.

Your Personal AI Travel Guide

Imagine wandering through a city with your very own AI travel guide, ready to reveal the stories behind every landmark, monument, or hidden gem you encounter. With Google’s Talking Tours, this vision takes a significant step closer to becoming a reality.

Google Talking Tours offers a fascinating glimpse into the future of AI-driven travel guidance. Developed as part of a collaboration between Google Arts & Culture Lab and artist-in-residence Gaël Hugo, this experiment leverages generative audio and Google’s cutting-edge Gemini AI to provide dynamic, location-specific insights about cultural landmarks captured in Street View. 

Talking Tours currently covers 55 major landmarks around the world, offering an AI-generated audio guide that provides insights based on the visual content of Street View panoramas. Users can explore a 360-degree view of a site, take a snapshot, and receive detailed commentary from the AI. Additionally, users can click an “ask a question” button to generate three contextual questions about the location, enhancing interactivity and personalized learning.

The technology relies on a blend of visual analysis and geospatial data. Gemini, Google’s multimodal large language model, processes the scene, combines it with GPS data, and crafts a descriptive script. This script is then converted into audio using a Google AI audio model, creating an immersive learning experience.

You can even explore individual museums and galleries, take snapshots of specific works of art or artifacts, and listen to Talking Tours' AI-generated narrated guides. Unfortunately, at this stage, the AI does not yet possess extensive knowledge of all exhibits in every museum and gallery worldwide. As a result, you may often receive a generic-sounding response rather than detailed information about a specific work of art or artifact. However, if the exhibit is particularly notable - for example, the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum - Talking Tours is able to generate a reasonably informed narration that describes and explains the selected exhibit.

Introducing Terra Draw

James Milner has released a new JavaScript library designed to add drawing tools to various online map developer platforms. While most popular mapping platforms offer built-in drawing tools or have add-on drawing libraries, Terra Draw is specifically created to work cross-platform, seamlessly integrating with many popular mapping libraries.

Terra Draw is a powerful JavaScript library that provides a suite of geographical feature drawing tools for maps. It is designed to work "out of the box" with leading mapping libraries like Mapbox, MapLibre, Google Maps, OpenLayers, and Leaflet.

Why Choose Terra Draw?

Integrating drawing tools into interactive maps can be tedious, especially when working with different mapping libraries. Terra Draw addresses this by offering:

• Cross-Library Compatibility: With built-in adapters, developers can integrate Terra Draw into their preferred mapping platform without rethinking the core logic.
• State Management with the Store: The Store is the heart of Terra Draw, efficiently managing all the features and providing easy access to their geometries.
• Customizability: Developers can extend the library with custom modes, adapting it to specific use cases.

What Drawing Modes are Available?

Modes define the different drawing behaviors or tools that can be added to your map. Terra Draw includes several predefined modes, such as:

• Rectangle Mode: Draw rectangles.
• Polygon Mode: Draw polygons.
• Freehand Mode: Enable freeform drawing.
• Select Mode: Manipulate existing features.

The Drawing Data 'Store'

The Store in Terra Draw manages the state of all features added to the map by the user when drawing with one of the modes. It is created when Terra Draw is initialized and stores features in GeoJSON format. Features can be added using drawing modes (e.g., TerraDrawRectangleMode) or via the addFeatures method. The Store also supports adding, removing, and restoring features, offering robust data management for interactive map drawing.

Installing Terra Draw

You can install Terra Draw via npm or directly integrate it using a script tag. Adapters act as connectors between Terra Draw and your chosen mapping library, handling map-specific logic for rendering features.

GeoGuessr for History Buffs

Can you guess the date and location of the historical event taking place in these two AI generated videos? If you can then you might just become the Time Portal champion of the world.

Time Portal is a fun and innovative online game that challenges you to pinpoint the time and place of significant historical moments. If you’re a fan of history and love games like GeoGuessr, this one’s for you.

At its core, Time Portal is a guessing game that drops you into a series of random historical events. But instead of just reading about them or looking at static images, you’re immersed in dynamic, AI-generated video footage of the event itself.

Your mission? To figure out when and where you are in history.

The AI-generated videos used in the game are created using a sophisticated pipeline of Flux, Kling, and mmaudio. These tools combine to produce visually and aurally rich recreations of historical moments. While the AI-generated footage often captures the essence of the events, it occasionally takes creative liberties - incorporating elements of folklore or popular myths into the historical narrative.

Every day, a new Daily Challenge awaits you on Time Portal. You’ll be tasked with identifying the time and place of five different historical events, each represented by a unique video.

In each round, your score is based on how close your guesses are to the actual location and year of the event. For those who love a challenge, you can also replay any of the previous daily challenges to refine your skills or compete for higher scores.

Also See

A Nightmare on View Street - Can you identify the locations being attacked by monsters in these AI-generated videos?

Roads, Railways, Runways & Rivers

I have been inspired by OpenSkiStats' Which Way do You Ski to create my own interactive map for visualizing the orientations of roads, railways, runways, and rivers in towns and cities around the world.

In Which Way Do You Ski, OpenSkiStats created a series of "compass rose" visualizations that illustrate the strong poleward tendency of ski runs across the globe. These ski slope orientation visualizations reminded me of Geoff Boeing's Comparing City Street Orientations which uses compass roses to show the orientations of city street grids around the world.

Geoff Boeing's Comparing City Street Orientations

Inspired by Geoff's visualizations Volodymyr Agafonkin created his Road Orientations Map, a Mapbox-powered map that lets users view the street grid orientations of any town or city worldwide. Using Volodymyr's code, I’ve now developed my own Transportation Orientations Map.

My Transportation Orientations interactive map allows you to view the orientations of roads, railways, rivers, and runways anywhere in the world. It provides an intuitive way to observe and analyze how these features are oriented within any area you choose.

Key Features:

1. Dynamic Compass Rose - The compass rose updates in real-time as you move around the map or zoom in and out. It reflects the orientations of the selected feature set in the visible map area.
2. Interactive Geocoding - Quickly locate any place in the world using the integrated search bar powered by OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim API.
3. Customizable Layers - focus on specific infrastructure types by selecting from roads, railways, runways, or rivers. The selected features are highlighted on the map in red, and their orientations are reflected in the compass rose.
4. Downloadable Visualizations - Add a personal touch by entering custom text below the compass rose. Once satisfied, you can download the compass rose visualization as a PNG image with a single click.

My map is largely a clone of Volodymyr's original Road Orientations Map. All I've done is adapt it for MapLibre, add the ability to view the orientations of railways, runways, and rivers, and include an option to download the compass rose as an image.

An Extremely Distorted Map of the US Election

Following the publication of its Extremely Detailed Map of the 2016 Election, the New York Times was widely criticized for visually misrepresenting the election results. Despite this backlash, the newspaper chose to repeat the error after the 2020 election - and has now done so again!

The New York Times recently released its Extremely Detailed Map of the 2024 Election. According to the NYT, the map is still a work in progress, currently displaying results from 73% of all votes cast. Results from some voting precincts are missing but will be added in the coming weeks.

The methodology behind the 2024 map remains unchanged from that used in the original Extremely Detailed Map of the 2016 Election. This decision is surprising, given the widespread criticism the 2016 map received from cartographers and data visualization experts. Cartonerd's Cartographic Hyperbole summarized these critiques into two main points:

1. Use of a choropleth map: The map disproportionately highlights sparsely populated areas, giving them the same visual prominence as densely populated regions.
2. Web Mercator projection: The projection does not maintain equal area, a crucial requirement for accurate visual representation in electoral maps.

The map is undeniably a powerful tool for exploring precinct-level vote counts for each presidential candidate. It also allows users to quickly identify precincts that overwhelmingly voted for one candidate. However, it suffers from the same flaw as its predecessors: it overemphasizes large, rural precincts (which usually vote Republican) , leading to a visually skewed representation of the overall election results.

In the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, Donald Trump secured 49.9% of the vote, narrowly defeating Harris, who garnered 48.4%. Yet, the NYT's 'Extremely Detailed Map' gives the impression of a landslide victory for Trump due to the vast swaths of red representing rural areas. You could almost say that the NYT map creates an extremely distorted view of just how close the 2024 election truly was.

Global Ski Slope Orientations

OpenSkiStats has analyzed ski trail maps to determine the direction of travel for ski trails worldwide. In Which Way do You Ski OpenSkiStats has used ski trail maps to determine the direction of travel of all ski trails in ski resorts around the globe. 

By gathering the coordinates of all trail segments, connecting these points, and treating each segment as a vector scaled by its vertical drop, OpenSkiStats creates a "ski rose." This circular chart, akin to a wind rose, characterizes the directions of all trail segments at a ski area. Each petal represents a compass direction, with its radius proportional to the combined vertical drop of trail segments in that direction.

map and ski rose of all ski trails in Holt’s Ledge and Winslow Ledge, in Lyme, NH

As depicted in the U.S. ski rose cartogram at the top of this page, in the Northern Hemisphere, a majority of ski slopes are on the northern side of mountains. OpenSkiStats found a 'strong poleward' tendency in ski slopes worldwide - in other words, the majority of runs in the Northern Hemisphere are oriented toward the north, while those in the Southern Hemisphere are oriented toward the south.

Interestingly, OpenSkiStats also discovered a 'moderate eastward' preference in ski slopes in both hemispheres. This trend reflects a preference for morning sun, when temperatures are lower, over afternoon sun, influencing the orientation of ski trails.

Notable Memorial Map

Notable Memorials

This morning, I created a map of memorials in central London.

My Notable Memorials map displays the names of individuals with memorials in central London, many of which are blue plaque memorials.

While there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about the map itself (although seeing the names of individuals rather than just markers is quite engaging), what stands out is how quickly I was able to create it. In under five minutes, I gathered the data and built the map thanks largely to the Download Data from OpenStreetMap tool.

Download Data from OpenStreetMap

Download Data from OpenSteetMap is a new tool that makes it remarkably easy to view and extract geographical data from OpenStreetMap in GeoJSON format.

Anyone familiar with Overpass Turbo knows it is a powerful querying tool for OpenStreetMap data. However, mastering the Overpass Query Language (OQL) can be quite challenging (though tools like ChatGPT have made writing Overpass QL queries much easier). That’s why I believe there’s a significant demand for simple, user-friendly tools like Download Data from OpenStreetMap.

The tool uses OpenStreetMap categories to populate a drop-down menu. To view and download data, you simply select one of these categories. Any subcategories are conveniently displayed in the map’s sidebar. Then, with just a click of the green 'download' button, you can export the selected data as a GeoJSON file.

Notable People Map

If I wanted to make my Notable Memorials map into something people might actually use when traveling around London I could use the Wikipedia API to add a brief biographical paragraph for each of the notable individuals displayed on the map. 

For now you might prefer Topi Tjukanov's Notable People Map, which shows the most notable people born in locations around the globe. If you want to find memorial markers then the Historical Marker Database records the locations of permanent outdoor historical markers and commemorative plaques across the world. Read the Plaque has also mapped the location of thousands of historical plaques.

LA Fires Damage Inspections Dashboard

Around 105,000 Los Angeles residents remain under mandatory evacuation orders, with an additional 87,000 under evacuation warnings. Many of these residents are uncertain and deeply concerned about the safety of their homes. So far, more than 12,000 buildings have been destroyed by the Los Angeles fires.

To provide clarity and transparency, the County of Los Angeles has published preliminary maps of buildings destroyed in the Los Angeles fires. There are four separate Damage Inspection Dashboards, one for each fire:

• Eaton Fire
• Palisades Fire
• Franklin Fire
• Bridge Fire

These interactive map dashboards display the latest assessments of damage to buildings caused by each fire. Individual buildings are categorized as Destroyed, Major (damage), Minor, Affected, Inaccessible, or No Damage on the maps.

Each map provides a sobering visualization of the devastation caused by the LA fires. Unfortunately, the extent of the damage is expected to increase, as these maps are only preliminary. Damage assessments are ongoing, with updates being made daily. If a building on the map lacks an attached report, it means it has not yet been inspected.

By zooming into a neighborhood on any of the maps, the dashboard automatically updates to show the current statistics within the selected area. These include the number of buildings inspected, the number of residential and commercial buildings, and the count of structures categorized as damaged, destroyed, or unaffected.

The Big Foot Sightings Map

In October 2004, Rodney Frank Williams's daughters reported hearing what they described as "a combination of a whale and a dinosaur" coming from the state forestland near their home in Joyce, Washington. Upon further investigation, Williams discovered a footprint "much like a large wide human print dressed in a moccasin." Additional incidents, including a mysteriously moved pumpkin, led Williams to conclude - despite skepticism from some of his neighbors - that there was a Sasquatch in the area. He subsequently reported the episode to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.

The Bigfoot Map is an interactive map of Bigfoot and Sasquatch sightings in Washington state. It is based on data compiled by the Bigfoot Field Reporters Association. The map features a variety of options, allowing users to filter sightings by day of the week and season. Using these filters, I couldn't detect any significant differences in the number of sightings by day. However, there is a noticeable decline in the number of sightings during the winter. This suggests to me that either:  

1. Sasquatches hibernate,   
2. Fly south for winter, or 
3. Humans spend less time outdoors in winter.  

You may also be interested in:

America's UFO Hotspot Map
UFO Stalker - the latest UFO reports made to MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network)
The Anomaly Observatory - mapping reports of paranormal activities around the world

Los Angeles Wildfire Maps

Five wildfires are currently burning in Los Angeles. At the time of writing, three of the fires remain uncontained. So far, the fires have claimed at least five lives, and 137,000 people have been evacuated. Over 1,000 structures, including many homes, have also been lost.

Genasys Protect's evacuation management tool provides an interactive map where Los Angeles residents can access evacuation information specific to their address. Each evacuation zone on the map is color-coded to indicate whether an evacuation order or an evacuation warning is currently in place. Additionally, the map displays information about the latest extent of active fires.

Similarly, Watch Duty's map highlights evacuation zones, using red to signify evacuation orders and yellow to indicate evacuation warnings. In addition to the evacuation zones, the Watch Duty map also marks the locations of Evacuation Centers, kitchens offering meal services, animal shelters, and Family Assistance Centers.

The Los Angeles Time's California Widlfires Map uses data from CalFire, the National Interagency Fire Center, and the Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination to show the locations of active fires. On the map, mandatory evacuation zones are shown in red, and evacuation warning areas are highlighted in yellow. A sidebar provides further information on each active fire, including the number of acres burned and the duration of each fire.

The Washington Post is also Mapping the L.A. wildfires. Their series of static maps shows the extent of each fire, areas under evacuation orders and evacuation warnings, and the number of people affected by evacuation mandates for each blaze.

Weather conditions contributing to the wildfires’ spread are expected to persist through the weekend. The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for much of Southern California. According to the warning, "high winds and low relative humidity will continue critical fire weather conditions in Southern California through Friday."

A Red Flag Warning signifies that "critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now or will shortly. A combination of strong winds, low relative humidity, and warm temperatures can contribute to extreme fire behavior."

The Guardian has published a series of before-and-after satellite images illustrating the scale of destruction from the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires. Their feature, Before and after the California fires uses imagery from Maxar Technologies to visualize the extent of the damage caused to some areas of L.A.

NBC News has created a map which allows you to overlay the extent of the Palisades Fire (as at 7.55m Jan. 9, 7:55 PT) on top of your own location. At the time of the map's creation, on January 9th, the Palisades Fire was more than 31.2 square miles in size -  that is roughly half the size of Washington DC’s 61 square miles.

The House Price Map

One of my favorite pastimes is searching for houses for sale in the UK and Europe. I love trawling real estate sites and discovering what kind of property I could buy if I sold my small terraced house in London. As a result of this almost daily exploration of real estate listings, you might say I have become obsessed with house prices and the cost of property in different areas of the UK.

Which is probably why I love Housemetric's House Price Map. This interactive tool is designed to provide insights into property prices in a visual, map-based format. It uses data-driven methodologies to estimate and display property values and price per square meter in England and Wales.

The map features two main views:

1. Average Price Heatmap:

• Displays the estimated current value of properties.
• Uses a simple automated valuation model.
• Larger properties tend to appear more expensive as the map does not adjust for property size.
• Aggregated clusters at higher zoom levels show median property values for those groups.

2. Price per Square Meter (SQM) Heatmap:

• Adjusts for property size by calculating the price per square meter.
• Highlights areas with the highest cost per square meter, irrespective of property size.

If you zoom in on the average price heatmap, you can view the actual last selling price of individual properties and when they were last sold, based on HM Land Registry data. The Price per Square Meter map view is restricted to registered users.

Via: Quantum of Sollazzo

Your Conception of the World is Wrong

It is often argued that the distortions of the Mercator projection affect the public's cognitive map, giving them an incorrect understanding of the relative sizes of countries and continents around the world. To investigate this claim, the Department of Geography at Ghent University conducted a study to collect data on people's perceptions of the world and test their understanding of the relative sizes of countries and continents.

The Mercator projection greatly exaggerates the size of landmasses as they approach the poles. For instance, on a map using the Mercator projection, Greenland appears nearly the size of Africa, even though Africa is 14 times larger in reality. This has led to concerns that the widespread use of the Mercator projection may contribute to widespread misconceptions about the Earth's geography.

To explore this further, Ghent University developed an online test titled How accurate is your mental map? The test was designed to assess how well participants could estimate the sizes of countries, regions, and continents, and explored their familiarity with different map projections. 

You can use this test yourself to discover the accuracy of your own mental map of the world. During the test you are asked to estimate the size of 12 different countries or continents in comparison to other regions of the world. In each of the 12 rounds you are presented with a map of two countries or continents and simply have to use the '-' and '+' buttons to change the size of the two countries or continents with reference to each other.

At the end of the test you can view your results, including a score for each of the 12 comparisons. The results also show how closely your estimates matched the actual sizes of the compared countries or continents.

Interestingly, in reference to the famous West Wing clip that criticized the Mercator projection, the study concluded that participants, on average, "estimated the continents a little more accurately when projected in the Mercator projection" than when using the Gall–Peters projection. However, the study also found that participants familiar with the Robinson projection estimated sizes more accurately than those familiar with the Mercator projection. This finding supports the idea that incorporating better map projections, such as the Robinson projection, in educational settings can improve spatial awareness and understanding of global geography.

For those interested in exploring the study's findings further, the full conclusions are available in the published paper, The Influence of Map Projections on People’s Global-Scale Cognitive Map: A Worldwide Study.

Via: OSMWeekly

SPOT: the Natural Language Geolocation Map

SPOT, is an AI-powered tool designed to simplify and enhance the geolocation process for journalists and the OSINT community. Searching for the locations in media content can be challenging, especially for those unfamiliar with OSINT tools for identifying locations which are unknown. SPOT is designed to bridge this gap by providing a user-friendly way to locate places in images and videos using natural language prompts.

What is SPOT?

SPOT is a cutting-edge AI-powered interactive map that leverages natural language processing to help users locate geospatial patterns in OpenStreetMap data. By interpreting user prompts that describe specific geospatial elements - such as landmarks, infrastructure, or unique buildings - SPOT attempts to identify corresponding locations. The tool is tailored to meet the specific needs of geolocation tasks, assisting users in verifying the locations depicted in media content.

How Does SPOT Work?

SPOT is designed to be intuitive and accessible for all users. Its standout feature is its ability to interpret clear, detailed prompts. A well-crafted prompt typically includes:

• A general location: Specify a city or country.
• Visible elements: Describe landmarks or features seen in the image or video.
• Spatial relationships: Mention distances or arrangements between elements (e.g., “500 meters apart”).

Using these natural language prompts, SPOT scans OpenStreetMap data and displays potential matches within the defined search area. Results are highlighted with colored circles, and users can explore each location further by linking to external mapping platforms like Google Maps, Bing Maps, Yandex, or even Google Street View.

However, SPOT’s accuracy hinges on the quality of data available in OpenStreetMap. If certain landmarks or features are missing from the platform, SPOT may fail to return results.

Does it Work?

I'd love to report that SPOT is a valuable new tool in the OSINT arsenal. Unfortunately, my experience with the tool has been less than successful so far, even when using prompts that correspond to clearly mapped data in OpenStreetMap.

For example:

• A search for “a Pagoda in Battersea Park in London” returned “No Results in Search Area”, even though the Peace Pagoda is clearly marked in OpenStreetMap.
• Similarly, I tried the prompt “Mills next to a river near Bromley-by-Bow Underground Station.” These mills are accurately depicted on OpenStreetMap, yet SPOT again reported “No Results in Search Area.”

It’s unclear whether the issue lies with SPOT’s search algorithms, data processing, or other limitations. I would love to hear if others have had more success with the tool - please share your experiences in the comments below!

Via: WeeklyOSM

Mapped, Drawn & Bordered

Think you know your U.S. states? Test your geography skills and creativity with Mapped, Drawn & Bordered, a fun and challenging game that puts your state-drawing abilities to the test! Whether you're a geography buff or just looking for a unique way to pass the time, this game offers an entertaining way to explore the United States while testing your geography and map drawing skills.

I've always loved Time's See How Well You Can Draw All 50 States, so I decided to create my own state-drawing game.

In Time's game, you draw each U.S. state from memory, one at a time. After each drawing, the game grades your accuracy and adds your version of the state to a map of the United States.

My new game Mapped, Drawn & Bordered, offers a new twist. You start the game by selecting a U.S. state from a drop-down menu and then draw that state on top of an interactive map. The map includes town and city names to give you a few helpful clues, but it excludes the actual state borders and labels.

Once you've completed your drawing, the game calculates a percentage score based on how closely your sketch matches the actual state border.

How the Game was Made

Map Library & Map Tiles

Mapped, Drawn & Bordered uses the Maplibre mapping library with OpenFreeMap map tiles. OpenFreeMap allows free customization of maps, which was essential for this game. This means I was able to use Maputnik to remove the state borders and the state name labels from the map used in Mapped, Drawn & Bordered.

Drawing Tools

The drawing tools in Mapped, Drawn & Bordered are provided by the mapbox-gl-draw plug-in. mapbox-gl-draw allows you to add drawing tools to Mapbox and Maplibre powered maps.

Scoring

The scoring is all handled by Turf.js. Turf's advanced geospatial analysis operations are used in the game to compare the player drawn polygons to the actual state polygons. The scoring system is very simple. It is based on this formula:

More 2024 Maps of the Year

On New Year's Day, I posted the Maps Mania round-up of the 2024 Year in Maps. I am not the only one who has spent time exploring the best maps of 2024. 

The Global Investigative Journalism Network's Top 10 Data Journalism Projects of 2024  included maps from Hungary's Atlo, Japan's Nikkei, and Germany's netzpolitik.

Danube Warming Up

Atló's Danube Warming Up uses a Mapbox story-map to visualize the effects of global warming on Europe's second-longest river. The project presents multiple visualizations of how global heating has impacted the Danube and its broader watershed. For example, the map above illustrates the river, color-coded along its length, based on annual average temperature increases between 2010 and 2020.

What Happened When the JAL Plane Caught Fire

In January, Japanese newspaper Nikkei created an impressive - and harrowing - mapped re-enactment of a plane collision in Tokyo. 

On January 2, 2024, Japan Airlines Flight 516 (JAL516) collided with a plane operated by the Japan Coast Guard.The interactive project, What Happened When the JAL Plane Caught Fire, used Google Earth imagery to create a 3D reconstruction of the crash. This reconstruction is incorporated into a story-map to explain the sequence of events that led to the collision.

How data brokers sell our location data

In July Bayerischer Rundfunk and netzpolitik published a joint investigation into the global trade of location data.

In Under Surveillance, Bayerischer Rundfunk revealed how location data from mobile phones is openly sold on the market. Alarmingly, this data included the locations of U.S. spies working in Germany. By analyzing the data of individuals spending most of their working hours at a U.S. military base in Germany, the broadcasters identified an individual working in the "Tin Can," a building used for U.S. internet surveillance. Using this data, they were even able to determine the spy’s home address in Germany.

Flowing Data's Best Data Visualization Projects of 2024 included maps from NASA, the German Foreign Office and The Pudding.

Your Name in Landsat

In 2024, NASA launched Your Name in Landsat, a playful tool that uses satellite imagery to spell out names with Earth features captured in Landsat images. Users can type their names into the tool to see them "written" in massive, natural shapes on Earth and even download these unique visualizations.

Climate Conflict Vulnerability Index Map

The German Foreign Office released an interactive map in 2024 visualizing climate and conflict risks worldwide. The Climate Conflict Vulnerability Index Map identifies regions where climate change and conflicts are likely to converge, highlighting areas with particularly vulnerable populations.

The United States of Abortion

In October, The Pudding published a diagrammatic cartogram of the United States titled The United States of Abortion. In this innovative cartogram, each state is represented by a small maze, symbolizing the difficulties women now face when navigating abortion policies in each state.

If you want to explore even more of 2024's best data visualizations then the Datawrapper's Data Vis Lists, 2024 consists of a comprehensive round-up of data viz round-ups published by some of the internet's best data visualization teams and individuals. 

The Interactive Climate Atlas

The Copernicus Interactive Climate Atlas is a new interactive map from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (CS3). This map-based application uses historical climate data and modeled future scenarios to visualize the potential impacts of various global heating levels.

C3S, established by the European Union, aims to provide authoritative information and services that help society understand, adapt to, and mitigate the effects of climate change. The new Copernicus Interactive Climate Atlas aligns with this mission by enabling users to explore climate change projections through a range of interactive tools. These tools allow for the geographic visualization of data, analysis of trends over time, and insights through features like climate stripes.

Select a region on the map using the dropdown menu, then click the "regional information" button to access a variety of visualizations depicting climate change scenarios for the selected area. These visualizations include a time chart, which shows average annual temperature changes for each year since 1940, and a climate stripes chart, offering a clear visual representation of the same data over time.

2024 - the Year in Maps

Election Maps

There were a lot of elections in 2024. Which meant there were also a lot of election maps. In the UK, cartograms dominated the media's visualizations of the Labour Party's sweeping victory in the General Election. These UK Election Maps effectively highlighted the vast number of seats won by Labour, offering a clear and impactful representation of the results.

In the United States, Presidential Election Maps largely favored arrow swing maps. For instance, this Guardian map used red and blue arrows to depict the significant shift towards the Republican Party across urban and rural areas alike. This shift was evident even in majority-Black and heavily Latino counties, demonstrating the widespread nature of this electoral swing towards Trump.

The Year of AI

2024 was undeniably the year artificial intelligence made its mark on culture and technology - and cartography was no exception. Interactive maps began to harness large language models (LLMs), enabling natural language searches of spatial data.

Platforms like Godview and Fuzzy Maps emerged as pioneers, offering AI-powered natural language search capabilities. Although still in their infancy, these tools hint at a future where searching and interacting with maps becomes more intuitive. During 2025, we could well see major players like Bing and Google more visibly integrate robust AI search capabilities into their own mapping platforms.

AI and machine learning also continued to revolutionize the field of remote sensing. Machine learning algorithms are increasingly adept at detecting objects in satellite imagery, enhancing our ability to monitor deforestation, illegal fishing, and wildlife, and to respond to disasters. As climate change intensifies, the role of AI in Earth observation will likely continue to expand, helping to monitor and (hopefully) mitigate its effects around the world.

One of the most entertaining uses of AI in 2024 was Panoramai., a playful tool that allowed users to modify the appearance of Google Maps Street View panoramas using simple AI prompts. Despite its lighthearted nature, the tool became so popular that it was eventually shut down due to the high costs associated with its heavy usage.

Free Maps for All

Two platforms stood out as my Maps of the Year: OpenFreeMap and VersaTiles. These open-source platforms offer map developers free access to custom map tiles for websites and applications, leveraging data from OpenStreetMap.

With commercial map providers' costs continuing to rise, OpenFreeMap and VersaTiles provided a much-needed alternative for developers. Their commitment to open-source principles and accessibility hopefully ensures that in 2025 even more developers can bring exciting map-based projects to life (and without prohibitive costs).