A waltz with a year’s worth of weather radar is both predictable and mysterious

From the tornadoes of the Great Plains to the hurricanes of the Gulf Coast, the United States has some of the world’s most notoriously destructive and volatile weather. But while somewhat hard to grasp on local, week-to-week scales, the nation’s weather is characterised by noticeable and much more predictable patterns when viewed at a macro level. This engrossing timelapse from the YouTube channel Weather Decoded uses radar to follow the meteorology of the entire continental US for all of 2018. As the video unfolds, perennial patterns, such as clouds losing steam when pushing up against the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and seasonal trends, including a stormy June for Nebraska and Kansas, reveal themselves. While US-centric, the video offers an insightful glimpse into the ways in which weather is both predictable and mysterious.

Via Kottke