iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 6h

The center of Türkiye is a high, dry plateau and it stays quiet. The storms gather on the rim: the Taurus range along the Mediterranean, the eastern highlands, the southeast. 3,291,561 flashes over Türkiye in a year, one frame per day. Data: EUMETSAT MTG-I1 #Türkiye #lightning

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 9h

Three quarters of India's rain falls in four months, June to September. July and August alone bring nearly half. The tallest spike is Meghalaya: more than 12 metres of rain a year on one patch of hills. India as a whole gets about 1.3. Data: CHIRPS v3 #India #monsoon #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 10h

Ocean water warmer than 28 °C (82 °F) now covers 96 million km², up from 77 million on the same date last year: about two United States of extra hot sea surface. Two years of daily sea surface temperature. Data: NOAA OISST #ocean #climate #dataviz #maps

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 11h

The East River is not a river. It is a tidal strait, and in one week the water under the Brooklyn Bridge changed direction 27 times. New York Harbor, 20 to 27 September 2026. Data: NECOFS model, Chen lab, UMass Dartmouth #NYC #NewYork #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 17h

Midweek, cold water welled up along Lake Geneva's north shore between Lausanne and Vevey, surfacing at about 13°C while most of the lake sat near 18°C. Surface currents, 20 to 26 September 2026. Data: Alplakes lake model, Eawag (CC BY 4.0, adapted) #LakeGeneva #LacLéman #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 23h

The Southeast gets its rain in a slow summer swell, not one storm season. Twenty months over Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia as a surface: every 1 km cell rises by its rainfall, the trailing 14-day average, Jan 2025 to Sep 2026. NOAA MRMS radar + gauges, 1 km hourly.

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

At the peak of a winter flood Scotland pours about 5,300 cubic metres per second into the sea. At the summer low it is still running a thousand. A five-fold swing is mild for a country this wet: the Atlantic delivers rain all year. Data: @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social #Scotland #rivers #hydrology

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The South Sound's tide squeezes through the mile-wide Tacoma Narrows, and at its strongest this week the surface water there ran at nearly 5 knots. Puget Sound, 21 to 28 September 2026. Data: NOAA SSCOFS model #PugetSound #Seattle #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Paris, redessiné : la distance est le temps de trajet. Arc de Triomphe → Père-Lachaise, 20 min avant l'aube, 30 à 17 h. Redrawn so distance is drive time: 20 min before dawn, 30 at 5 p.m. Méthode : Jeremy Vonderfecht. Rues : OpenStreetMap. #paris #maps #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Lake Huron, one week of surface currents, hour by hour. Autumn is reaching the water: the surface cooled by about 3°F as cold water from the north end spread down the middle of the lake. Data: NOAA Great Lakes Operational Forecast System (model)

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The average colour of Europe, one day at a time for two years. Scandinavia and the Alps turn white every winter, the green rolls north through spring, and Spain, Italy and Greece bake gold all summer. Data: NASA MODIS, Eurostat GISCO #dataviz #maps #Europe

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Tomorrow, one of the year's biggest tides reaches Ireland. Tuesday is an equinox spring tide: Dublin's high water at 01:18, then the sea drains almost four metres below it by mid-morning. Every shore going dry is real seabed, one lunar day in 20 seconds. #Ireland #tides #dataviz #maps

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The tide turns under the Golden Gate Bridge about four times a day, and at its strongest this week the surface water ran through at nearly 4 knots. San Francisco Bay, 19 to 26 September 2026. Data: NOAA SFBOFS model #SanFrancisco #SFBay #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

In a few days the south shore of Lake Ontario went cold. One week of surface currents, hour by hour, 16 to 23 September 2026, colored by water temperature. Watch cold water well up along the New York shore. Data: NOAA GLOFS (model) #LakeOntario #GreatLakes #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Europe just had its hottest summer in a record going back to 1940: June to August ran 2.3 °C above the late 1800s across its land. France ran 4.4 °C above. The ten warmest years since 1979 have all come since 2014. ERA5 via Copernicus C3S. #Europe #climate #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

In 1992 Mexico and Central America carried about a quarter of the light they carry now. The new light runs down the Pacific side: one chain of cities, with the Caribbean lowlands behind it still dark. Harmonized DMSP+VIIRS 1992-2024 (Li et al. 2020) #nightlights #maps #mexico

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A year of lightning over the Greater Antilles: 7,011,577 flashes. Cuba takes about two of every three, roughly four times Puerto Rico's strikes per square kilometre. The dry winter nearly switches the map off; August alone brings 1.3 million. Data: NOAA GOES-19 #Cuba

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Where Brazil lives. The North is 45% of the land but 9% of the people; the Southeast is 11% of the land and 42% of the people. Equal-area blocks on the real terrain reflow to one block per 250,000 people. Source: IBGE, Censo 2022 #Brazil #cartogram #dataviz #maps

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Europe has no rainy season. October, its wettest month, takes 9.9% of the year's rain; August, its driest, 7.1%. A flat year would be 8.3% each month. Three years of daily rain, 2023 to 2026. Data: ERA5-Land. #Europe #rain #rainfall #maps #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Lake Erie turned toward autumn in a single week. Every hour of its surface currents, 16 to 23 September 2026, colored by water temperature: the surface lost about 6°F in seven days. Data: NOAA Great Lakes Operational Forecast System (model) #LakeErie #GreatLakes #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

France gained 28 million people since 1876, yet six in ten of its communes hold fewer people than they did then. In 1876 half the population lived on 15% of the land. Today it's 3%. Data: INSEE, séries historiques de population #France #dataviz #maps #demographics

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

By late summer the water in Texas rivers pushes past 30 °C, and almost the whole state warms at once. Every river, every day since Jan 2025: the arid west runs dry for months, year-round flow hugs the east and Gulf. Data: GloFAS, HydroRIVERS #Texas #rivers #dataviz #hydrology

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Lake Superior, one week of surface currents, hour by hour (16 to 23 September 2026), colored by water temperature. An eddy spins beside the Keweenaw Peninsula all week. Data: NOAA Great Lakes Operational Forecast System (model)

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Where does Iran's low ground start? Not at sea level. The commonest elevation in the country is 700 to 800 metres: the floor of the Kavir and the Lut, deserts that look sunken and are really the top of a walled plateau. Data: AWS Terrain Tiles (Terrarium DEM) #Iran #geography #maps

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Where Italy lives, every census from 1861 to 2021. Italy has gained 11.5 million people since 1951, yet 56% of its towns are smaller today than they were then. #dataviz #Italy #maps

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Mainland Southeast Asia runs on the monsoon. At the dry-season low it puts ~6,400 m³ into the sea each second; at the monsoon peak, ~207,000, thirty-two times more. Every river breathes with the year. Data: GloFAS (@copernicusecmwf.bsky.social) #rivers #mekong #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

More than half the buildings in Madrid today went up after 1978, the year Spain's constitution was signed. Under 2% predate 1900. Two surges built most of it: the 1960s and the 1997 to 2007 housing boom. Data: Spain's Catastro. #dataviz #maps #Madrid

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Rio Branco, in the Brazilian Amazon, went from 36°C to 16°C in under three days. Cold air pushed up from the south and climbed Brazil; Manaus never cooled at all. In the Amazon this has a name: friagem. Data: Copernicus ERA5 #Brazil #weather #dataviz #maps

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Why does Ireland keep its mountains around the edge? Half the island stands below 84 metres, and the middle is the lowest part of it: a broad limestone plain of bog and pasture, uplands pushed out to the coasts. Data: AWS Terrain Tiles (Terrarium DEM) #Ireland #geography #maps

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Half of France's forest has no dominant species: 51% is mixed stands. Where one species does dominate, it's oak, on 19%, far ahead of beech, fir or pine. Data: IGN BD Forêt V2 #France #forest #trees #maps #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Half of China's rain falls in three months, June through August. Three years of daily rain, 2023 to 2026. One patch of the Guangxi coast averages 3.6 metres a year; the Tarim Basin averages under 5 centimetres. Data: CHIRPS v3.0. #China #rain #monsoon #maps #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Every passenger train scheduled in Switzerland on Friday 25 September, 15,368 of them. Four in five are S-Bahn and regional (green); the red intercity trains link the big cities. At 4:50 PM, 741 are moving at once. Data: opentransportdata.swiss, OpenStreetMap #Switzerland #trains #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Lake Michigan never sits still. One week of its surface currents, hour by hour, 16 to 23 September 2026, colored by water temperature. Watch cold water well up along the Michigan shore and curl out into the warmer lake. Data: NOAA GLOFS (model) #LakeMichigan #GreatLakes #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Every river in Mexico, drawn only by its own water, every day since Jan 2025. About 3,800 m³/s reaches the sea at the end of the dry spring, 57,000 at the October peak, a fifteenfold swing. GloFAS data via @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social #rivers #Mexico

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

That white knot in the north, where the Andes split into three ranges, is one of the most lightning-struck places on Earth. Storms build almost every afternoon, all year. 24,788,393 flashes over Colombia, one frame per day for just over a year. Data: NOAA GOES-19 #Colombia #lightning

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Half of North America gets under 51 cm of rain a year. The average, near 68, is carried by a few narrow coasts: British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest clear 3 metres while the Southwest deserts sit under 25 cm. Three years of daily rain, 2023 to 2025. #dataviz #rain #NorthAmerica

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

When the snow goes in late February, nearly eight times as much water leaves Ukraine as on the driest day of late summer: about 17,500 m³/s against 2,300. Every river in the country, Crimea included, every day since January 2025. Data: @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social #rivers #Ukraine #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

India's lighthouses reach more than 1,300 km out to sea, from the peninsula out to the Lakshadweep atolls and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Every point is a real navigational light on its charted character. #lighthouses #India #maps Data: OpenSeaMap + NGA List of Lights

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Boston, redrawn so distance is drive time: the streets swell as the roads clog. Harvard Square to Logan runs about 14 min before dawn, 21 in the evening crush. Method: Jeremy Vonderfecht. Streets: OpenStreetMap. #boston #maps #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Every Renfe train scheduled in Spain on Thursday 24 September, 5,544 of them. Three in four are commuter trains (red); the purple high-speed trains fan out from Madrid. Peak is 7:51 PM, not the morning rush: 533 moving at once. Data: Renfe, OpenStreetMap #Spain #trains #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

How much of New England is actually mountains? Half of it sits below 681 feet. The commonest ground is the coast; the Whites and the Greens are that thin sliver at the top. #NewEngland #geography #elevation #maps

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

One 5 km square in Amapá catches 4,106 mm of rain a year. In the Bahian sertão, 314. Three years of daily CHIRPS rainfall across Brazil, height in mm per day. Interactive: mapped.earth/rainfall/brazil #Brazil #rainfall #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Typical peak foliage: northern Maine around Oct 5, Connecticut and Rhode Island around Oct 21. Timing from 25 years of NASA MODIS phenology, checked against USA National Phenology Network observations; color from USDA Forest Service tree species maps. #fallfoliage #NewEngland #maps

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Hot Mediterranean is California's biggest climate at 24.7%, and with warm Mediterranean the dry-summer coast pattern covers 46% of the state. But 42% is arid: desert and steppe, nearly a fifth hot desert. Köppen-Geiger, Beck et al. 2023 #california #climate #koppen #map

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Saint Petersburg wasn't built on an empty swamp. This was Swedish Ingria; a town called Nyen stood at the mouth of the Neva until Peter the Great took it in 1703. Every building on the map dates from after that. Data: how-old-is-this.house (ODbL) #dataviz #maps #SaintPetersburg

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

More than half the buildings standing in Los Angeles today were already up by 1950, before almost any of the freeways existed. The ten years from 1947 to 1956 alone account for nearly a third. Data: LA County Assessor + LARIAC #LosAngeles #California #maps #dataviz

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

How high is Brazil? Half the country stands above 252 meters, and almost none of that is mountain: the Amazon basin near sea level, the Brazilian Highlands one broad step above it. Data: AWS Terrain Tiles (Terrarium DEM) #Brazil #geography #maps

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

You could find your way along the Nova Scotia coast blind, just by timing the blinks. Every lighthouse flashes on its own rhythm, a set interval and colour no neighbour repeats. Sambro Island off Halifax has burned since 1758, the oldest working lighthouse in North America. #lighthouse #NovaScotia

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Every navigation light on Germany's coasts flashes a rhythm of its own. Some sweep, some blink, some hold steady, and a sailor tells one from the next by timing alone. They ring the North Sea and the Baltic, and run inland up the Rhine and Danube. #Germany #lighthouse #maps

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Aaron Becker @aaronjbecker.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Every river in the Netherlands, every day since Jan 2025. A delta breathing, mostly the Rhine and Meuse passing through: flow to the sea sinks to ~160 m³/s in late summer, climbs to ~2,550 in winter, a sixteenfold swing. Data @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social #rivers #netherlands

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