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Using Hurricane Tracking Sites – Part 1
Helping you stay informed is one of the main goals of Hurricane Tracking Sites. On this site you can link to a wealth of information about hurricane tracking online. Today we are going to talk about how to get a heads up about what is happening in the tropics. It all starts with a daily visit to the NHC Atlantic Outlook feature located in the right hand column of the site. By clicking on that link you will get a graphic of what is currently being watched by the National Hurricane Center. This is today’s result:
The red circle means that there is a high probability that a storm of some intensity will form. One of the tools you can use at this point is on the HamWeather hurricane tracking site. They have an excellent model forecast feature that is posted way ahead of the other sites. You can find these models by going to the HamWeather site and looking for the following link:
If you click on the forecast link you will get a graphic of what the early models are saying about the storm. Remember that the models are not completely accurate. You are looking for some sort of agreement from the models. They are much more accurate as the storms get closer. Here is what the models are saying at the moment:
If this storm develops it will be called Kyle. Keep an eye on the tropics, staying informed is the best way to manage a hurricane season.
The Navy Site (http://nlmoc.navy.mil/home1.html)
The Navy Site is one of the hurricane tracking sites we have used and trusted for years. It isn’t actually called the Nave Site, it’s technical name is Naval Maritime Forecast Center – Norfolk. It has an URL address that is also virtually impossible to remember, so it is more convenient to use the handy link we have provided. The Nay site is what I would call a no frills site. When you go to the site you will get a page that looks like this:
If you will look for the poorly drawn circles we made (it is not easy to draw a circle with a mouse) you will find a link called “Tropical Cyclone”. When you click on that link you will get a page with information about current storms in the region. To see the Navy track of a storm you need to click on the link that will say “Graphic”. That will open up a page that will give you a very easy to understand graphic of where the Navy thinks the storm is going. This site doesn’t display a cone of uncertainty. Since the Navy has a lot of interest in where the storm goes, they are pretty good at hurricane tracks. You can also find their projection of wind speed at various times along the track. The Navy site is one that we always check frequently during the course of the storm. Just a side note, while no one is right 100% of the time about the track of a hurricane, both times the Navy site has forecast a hurricane to track over our house, it has. As long as this site isn’t pointing at us, it is one of our favorites!
HamWeather (www.hamweather.com)
The HamWeather site is one of the better hurricane tracking sites. It has an excellent model run feature that allows you to run a complete panel of models to see where the experts are developing their forecast cones. The graphics are very good and there are some excellent satellite images.
When you are in the cone of uncertainty you quickly learn when the updates come out of the National Hurricane Center. (Initially the updates are 5am, 11am, 5pm, and 11pm, once warnings are put in place they add intermediate advisories at 8am, 2pm, 8pm, and 2am). The way I normally track a hurricane is that as soon as there is an update I go to the National Hurricane Center site, then I go to the the Storpulse site, and then I come here to the HamWeather site. Each of the sites is excellent in its own way. Having access to the latest information will allow you to make decisions about what steps you will need to take in the possibility of an approaching storm. Take some time to get familiar with all of the features available on HamWeather. Let us know through the comment section of any features you find particularly helpful.
