This Beautiful Map Lets You Explore the Earth's Swirling Wind

Knowing your local wind conditions can be useful for activities like flying a kite, surfing, and as Tommy Callahan found out, sailing. And while you might have to study up on meteorology to understand the wind, you don't have to be a weather geek at all to enjoy a beautiful, interactive map that lets you explore the current wind patterns all over the world. Really, it's practically designed for bored people on the internet. 

The map, or Windyty, allows you to play around with the world's forecasted wind patterns, which as you can see in the embedded version below, are visualized with an oddly soothing swirling animation. The full version of the map, available at the Windyty website, also displays things like current temperatures, clouds, precipitation, and other weather phenomena, according to a report by Gizmodo. In other words, you'll probably end up playing with it all afternoon. 

A few minutes of playing around with the map will reveal what appear to be developing tropical storms in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and even the insane wind patterns surrounding Antarctica. It's our planet's weather like you've never seen it before, and it's freaking beautiful. Have fun getting sucked in, guys. 

h/t Gizmodo

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Tony Merevick is Cities News Editor at Thrillist and this maps is bringing out the aspiring meteorologist/storm chase of his childhood. Send news tips to news@thrillist.com and follow him on Twitter @tonymerevick.