This really illustrates to me how important the artificially colored overlays are. As river names change, I assume the river I'm tracking is merging with a larger river. And yet even when I know it's coming, I'm really struggling to spot the other river before we merge.
River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up
71–80 of 128 posts
Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up
#72It would be an interesting problem to see / solve where in this map would a drop travel the most. By just clicking, I got one that travels from Cavour, South Dakota to Gulf of Mexico over a 3523 Kms journey. I am sure there must be something that is longer! Edit - some of the routes stop at border of Canada - is this due to lack of dataset?
The source of the Missouri River - Brower's Spring apparently - is probably close to the point where it's longest. I can't find it exactly on this map, but have got up to 5790km, from a point just by Yellowstone Airport. The code is at https://github.com/sdl60660/river-runner/ , it would be quite possible to base a solver on that.
Ha I appreciate you sharing the repo, but if someone is interested in finding a longest route, they should probably just go straight to the data source (USGS NHDPlus data/NLDI API)
Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up
#73This is a lot of fun. As a resident of Maryland, I was mildly surprised to find that the Chesapeake Bay is treated as part of the Atlantic Ocean, instead of an individual waterway in its own right. I suppose this is probably due to the underlying data set, but it doesn't seem right to me.
You're the second person to mention this now! The stopping feature stuff is very tricky and not in the original USGS data, but I can block out Chesapeake Bay the same way that I blocked or the Gulf of Mexico
Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up
#74This is great! I got a chuckle though that this is for the US only, but it shows distance in km instead of miles. I'd love it if we changed to metric but I don't see that happening any time soon.
That's the form the data came in and when it came time to convert it, I figured it might be better not to.
Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up
#75This is amazing, outstanding project! Interestingly, I got it "stuck" when I clicked somewhere random in California (Pope Valley, apparently): https://i.imgur.com/deOsIt2.png
The path, having almost reached the mouth of the Sacramento River, seems to have been captured by the very artificial Mallard Reservoir in Concord, Contra Costa. As to be expected, it seems that anything draining into the Sacramento will do the same.
Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up
#76At a high level, I really like this. Some UX concerns are all that stop it from being amazing: - The mouse should be a pointer, not a hand. Not only is that the expectation when an element is interactive, but it helps with precision clicking. - The map almost made me sick when it starting moving. It needs to be slower and smoother. You already let people speed it up, but start slower. - Dragging the map should be pos…
Hey, thanks for the feedback. I actually struggled on what to do with the cursor, since the map is draggable (when not at min zoom level) prior to a click and the default mapbox cursor is denoting that. On balance, I think you're right that a default cursor might be better. Re: interaction during the run, I thought about allowing you to interact and just pausing the run while you do, but thought that too many people…
You could make it pause the run when moving the map around, the automatically continue if it's left alone for N seconds, where N is probably around 5.
Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up
#77The Great Basin is interesting to explore. I clicked in Eureka, Utah, and the route ended 23km away in a tiny lake called Gadwall Pool.
Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up
#78I live near the Continental Divide. I dropped a drop in Datil, NM, which is a few miles east of the divide, and it went west. But isn't the Continental Divide defined as the line at which water drains east or west? Is the app mistaken, is my definition wrong, or what?
I guess check and see which way the water flows next time you get a big rainstorm :)
Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up
#79It's pretty nuts to me that a raindrop that falls in Crow Agency, Montana will drain into the Gulf of Mexico!!! :p :) xx
I wonder how long that journey takes? Assuming no evaporation of our sample drop.
Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up
#80This is outstanding. Great job. Can't wait to show the kids when they wake up to better explain the continental divide here in Colorado.