On October 29th, 2012, Hurricane Sandy's storm surge advanced mercilessly on New York City. Subway lines we inundated. City streets turned fluvial. Gawker's server host did its best impression of Niagara Falls. Shit got — as they say — real.

Data visualization expert John Nelson uses graphic design to illustrate risk. In his latest infographic, he plots the perilousness of driving — something many of us will be doing a lot of in the coming weeks. Using traffic fatality data collected between 2006 and 2010, Nelson set out to look for daily, weekly, monthly, …

There are no red states or blue states. There are purple states. Mauve states. Violet states. You've probably seen maps that depict America's blended political landscape before ("we are not that divided" writes Jesus Diaz over at Gizmodo), but odds are you've never seen one quite like this. It was created by…

Data visualization expert John Nelson likes to illustrate risk. Usually he focuses on individual events, but in recent months he's directed his design talents towards a series of bigger projects, in the interest of communicating information about "general geographic trends in existential risk." Translation: beautiful…

If we've learned anything from the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado, it's that major wildfires are devastatingly powerful. They're so intense, in fact, that their energy output can actually be represented in terms of nuclear power plant output. Now, data visualization wizard John Nelson has done exactly that.

You're looking at the latest work of John Nelson, who is becoming well known for combining natural-disaster data with brilliant visualizations. The Michigan-based designer first captured our attention with a series of fantastic maps of U.S. tornado data. Now, he's used his talents to chart a century's worth of…

Using almost sixty years' worth of data from NOAA, designer John Nelson has produced a mesmerizing visualization of tornado activity in the United States. Ever wondered where "Tornado Alley" got its name? Wonder no more.