Challenge #84: Map Hurricane Harvey's Storm Evolution

The solution to last week's Challenge has been posted HERE.

This week's Challenge asks you to map the path and storm classification of Hurricane Harvey from its origins in the Atlantic to its eventual landfall in the United States.

Hurricane Harvey was the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States in over ten years, ending a period of with no hurricanes of Category 3 intensity or higher making landfall in the US. The eighth named storm, third hurricane and the first major hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, Harvey evolved over the course of its path (over 5500 miles from the western coast of Africa to the United States!) from a wave to a full hurricane.

The Start File, downloaded from the National Hurricane Center (NOAA.gov), contains data on the storm's path, its storm type classification and intensity. Construct the line segments for each of the changes in storm type over the storm's path. For each line segment, calculate the storm's average intensity.

NOTE: Data for Hurricane Irma can also be downloaded from the NHC here if you'd like to compare the storm tracks and/or intensities.

Hurricane Harvey upon landfall in the United States.

challenge_84_start_file.yxmd

challenge_84_solution.yxzp

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All comments

ChristineB

The Start File is now posted! Thanks to @David-Carnes for alerting me that it wasn't included with the post!

gnans19

Attached solution

Spoiler

challenge_84_Gnans.yxmd

Edwin_dup_98

Thank you for this new challenge!

Here is my solution.

Average Intensity numbers differ from the given output by Christine. I took average within a segment, where the given output took the average of a segment + first intensity number of next segment.

challenge_84_Edwin.yxmd

jamielaird

Here's my solution. Slight difference with some of the average intensities as noted by others.

Spoiler

challenge_84_JL.yxmd

nick_ceneviva

Solution attached. Ended up adding a couple more steps to be able to get the intensities to match and to have no gaps in the path.

Spoiler

challenge_84_Ceneviva.yxmd

JORGE4900

Hello all,

Here my solution; since I was coming up with different averages for the storm intensity, I tried doing them both way and still could not replicate the sample.

challenge_84_Jorge_Solution.yxmd

JORGE4900

@nick_ceneviva You were actually able to come up with the right averages; nice!

David-Carnes

Posting this as Hurricane Irma is setting her sights on my home state.

Spoiler

I can see three four different ways to come up with at average intensity for each segment but I went with the one whose output matches @ChristineB's start file.

David-Carnes-084.yxmd

JoeM

@ChristineB's solution is posted!

lminors

Solution attached. Took a while to get it perfect.

Spoiler

Seemed counter-intuitive to duplicate the rows where the segment changes but that way it allows you to have start and end points at the same location.

Thanks!

Luke - Keyrus UK

LM_WC_84.yxzp

estherb47

My stab at this.

Spoiler

To "connect the lines" and ensure that the average intensity is calculated for each segment including the end points that connect, I decided to generate a new row for each individual segment. It would take on one higher sequence number than the original highest sequence number per segment, and then copy in the first intensity and spatial object from the first sequence of the next segment.

challenge_84_EHB_solution.yxmd

NicoleJohnson

My solution for Harvey.

Spoiler

Thought I had it done in simple 3-4 tool workflow until I realized there were gaps between the segments... so I created new points for each segment that corresponded to the start point of the next segment.

challenge_84_NicoleJohnson.yxmd

vishalgupta

challenge_84_Vishal.yxmd

patrick_digan

Spoiler

Most of the tools are there to get the line segments fixed to match the solution which corrects for gaps.

challenge_84_start_file.yxmd

Natasha

This was an interesting challenge, had to iterate on this one.

Spoiler

At first, it looked straightforward to me, but my lines had gaps between them. This happened because I treated each segments as completely separate line. Segment 4 had no line at all, as it consisted of one point only.
Screen Shot 2017-10-03 at 23.46.15.png

This made me think that I need to connect each segment with the previous one. The end point of one segment should be exactly the same as the beginning of the next segment. I duplicated first rows for all the segments (except the first one), adjusted segment and sequence number and then run all the rows through my original workflow.

Screen Shot 2017-10-04 at 00.03.18.png

challenge_84_Natasha.yxmd

LordNeilLord

Most of it was pretty straight forward except for getting the continuous line, I had the logic in my head but trying to implement it caused a few re-works of the workflow

Spoiler

challenge_84_LNL.yxmd

dsmdavid

Not sure I entirely agree that the solution provided satisfies the instructions given (adding that extra point to the segment). Fun nevertheless...

solved#84.yxmd

LandonG

Solution attached.

challenge_84_start_file.yxmd

philipmannering

Solution attached.

Spoiler

challenge_84 - Map Hurricane Harvey Evolution.yxzp

ggruccio

Had to think about this one a bit - originally was getting a disconnected path.

challenge_84_gg_finish.yxmd

samN

Feel like there is something missing from the instructions. did two different ways.

challenge_84.yxmd

derekbelyea

Spoiler

challenge_84_JDB_AnalytixStudio.yxmd

JosephSerpis

Challenge Completed

Challenge_84_Joe_Serpis.yxmd

My solution

Spoiler

challenge_84_start_file.yxmd

KOBoyle

Solution attached. I thought the question was ambiguous too. After creating lines for the original set of records, I saw the gaps. I thought it made more sense to use the fill the gap at the beginning of each segment, rather than adding the first point in the following segment.

challenge_84_solution_KO.yxmd

Wouter

My solution:

Spoiler

*I didn't used the [Intensity] values from the created rows in the calculated average

challenge_84_solution_WK.yxmd

JonM

I do not get the opportunity to to use spatial data in my day job, so always enjoy these spacial challenges!

Spoiler

Always surprised by the power of the summarise tool!

SOL_challenge_84_start_file.yxmd

DriveMyData

Spoiler

Week 84.yxmd

danilang

Gotta love those spatial tools. Aside from the average intensity difference that several people have mentioned, my solution also show the start points to delineate each segment on the map

Spoiler

Dan

challenge_84_solution_DL.yxmd

StevenBetts

Here's my solution

Spoiler

challenge_84_start_file_SMB.yxmd

dominiklz

Spoiler

I went with the "minimum number of tools" solution in this case, going with just 2 tools to calculate the average per segment. The numbers don't add up identical, as the solution doesn't just take the average within the segment but + the first value of the next segment. I chose against that as it would mean using the same datapoint for two calculations which in my opinion introduces a bias towards specific dates in the dataset.

challenge_84_Dominik.yxmd

treepruner

I see that you get the official answer, but why didn't you have to take either the storm name or storm number into consideration when segment numbering?

rrahu07

Hi Natasha,

I am trying to learn the use Spatial tool. Can you please explain your reason behind using filter and formula tool? why did you filtered out tile number 1 and sequencenum 1? also, I am trying to understand the second formula you used. if you can explain it to me that will be very kind of you.

Rahat

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