Data or Art?

It's not surprising that I have over a dozen bookmarks on my browser for weather forecasting tools, and another dozen for avalanche forecasts.  After all - knowing what to expect for today, this weekend, or next week can be pivotal.  But recently I bookmarked a page that is for a weather forecast that I don't really use, but have become entranced to stare at:  an project by Hint.fm.

The site includes a collection of moments, including "Super-Storm" Sandy's landfall on top of New Jersey.
Photo | hint.fm

Hint.fm is a collaborative project by two "technologists," Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg, who have a number of examples of visual representations of tabular data on their site.  This is just the most compelling example for me.  The online page is much more entrancing, since Hint.fm is using currently wind telemetry from the US National Weather Service to create an active, moving image of wind speed and directions.  Take a look for yourself.  LINK