For today’s project we are analysing hailstorms in the U.S.

We had to include spatial data and build the dashboards in Alteryx with the Alteryx reporting tools.

I ran into several difficulties at the start because which data I needed to use. I started off with a CSV file of the hailstorm data and connected it to a spatial file. That took extremely long to run and almost crashed my computer, so I decided to scrap that. I then found the data with the spatial object already in it, which I started to explore instead.

I was a bit confused at this point because the specs of the task were to add a spatial file to the data, but the data I was using already had spatial information. The link to the data is here: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/gis/svrgis/

It was only after I started looking at the reporting tools that it started to make more sense. I used shape file of the United States, so I could have a map outlining each State. I found the shape file  file here: https://www.weather.gov/gis/AWIPSShapefiles

For the hailstorm data , there wasn’t much cleaning to do, all I did was rename the column headers and create a DateTime field (which I didn’t use in the end).

You must create separate streams for each chart that you want to produce. I first wanted to create a map showing hailstorms per state. I used the summarize tool to count the number of storms per state and joined that to the US States shapefile data. The map was super zoomed out, and the only way I could think to fix it was to remove Alaska and its surrounding states from the data, so I filtered them out, and filtered out the states that were showing up that are not actually states in America. I used the Report Map tool to configure the map and a Report Text Tool to add a title to the map. After that I created some simple bar and line charts for further analysis.

I found this task quite difficult as it was my first experience with these tools, and I spent a lot of time just not knowing how to go about configuring the tools how I wanted. But at the same time, it was a great opportunity and I know now the next time I use them I will be a little bit more comfortable with them.