NEWSChannel 2 Hurricane Links and Information

Here in Central New York , we don’t have to deal with direct impacts by hurricanes. But because of the recent national impact of tropical systems, many people are interested or curious to know what’s actually going on out there. We’ve compiled a list of websites for you that will help you to better understand hurricane season and its impacts. Many of these links are ones that the NEWSChannel 2 Weather Team uses on a daily basis to help track storms. You may even notice some images that you see in our blog as well. Clicking the links will open up new windows with the website in them. They are not affiliated with wktv.com, but should help you to become much more informed about tropical systems.

 

Comments or suggestions are always welcome. Email us: mailto:weather@wktv.com

 

National Hurricane Center – Official resource for hurricane information including the most recent advisories, discussions, and forecast tracks for current storms. 

 National Hurricane Center Satellite Page – Links to satellite imagery from across the Atlantic, Gulf and Caribbean . Click on “Storm Floater” imagery for focused satellite pictures of currently active storms 

High Resolution Satellite Imagery – Color, high-resolution snapshots, sometimes breathtaking, of current active storms. Also contains links for previous storms. 

The Saffir-Simpson Scale Decoded – Want to know the difference between a Category 3 and a Category 5? This will explain it all for you. 

List of Storm Names – Want to know if you’re going to be named after a tropical storm or hurricane this year or in future years? This lists all the names used during hurricane season for storms.  

Children’s Resource to Hurricanes – FEMA has put together an interactive website to help teach kids about hurricanes and their impacts.  

More Hurricane Links from the National Weather Service

 

For the more technically savvy weather buffs:  

Tropical Cyclone Computer Model Guidance - Jonathan Vigh of Colorado State University has put together a fantastic website that shows 5-10 computer model forecast tracks of tropical cyclones. These computer model tracks reflect possible outcomes of where the storm may end up. Some, or all, of these may be wrong, but we’ve posted this link to show you the exact same information we see here in the Weather Center . This should also help you to further appreciate just how difficult it is to forecast hurricane tracks!

Florida State University Computer Model Guidance – A computer model is run out of Florida State University by Dr. Robert Hart, called the MM5. This is just one of many possible solutions that are devised by computer models regarding a hurricane’s track. These forecasts are just that…unofficial forecasts made by a computer model and may not always reflect the final outcome.

Maximum Potential Hurricane Intensity – Dr. Kerry Emmanuel of MIT developed a scale with which to calculate the maximum intensity a hurricane could achieve. The information on this site is based on those findings. Remember, what you see on the map does not necessarily mean that a hurricane will be quite that strong. Rather, this gives you an idea as to how favorable the water temperatures might be for current storms to further intensify.