How-To: Storm Tracking Via Internet

For those not in the Tampa Bay area of Florida (where PCMech is based), there’s a Category 1 hurricane headed our way that will pass over the region on Tuesday according to latest reports.

Most people choose to get their weather updates from television news reports. This is all well and good, but as many are aware television tends to sensationalize quite a bit in order to get more viewers and sell more advertising.

Fortunately with the internet you can skip all that crapola and get to the information that counts.

Before giving you the 101 on storm tracking via internet, some people are unaware as to what the categories of storms actually indicate.

This is what they mean in a basic sense based on wind speed:

Under 39mph/63kph: Tropical Depression

39mph/63kph to 73mph/117kph: Tropical Storm

74mph/119kph to 95mph/153kph: Category 1

96mph/154kph to 110mph/177kph: Category 2

111mph/179kph to 130mph/209kph: Category 3

131mph/211kph to 155mph/249kph: Category 4

156mph/251kph and above: Category 5

To see where tropical storms are happening right now, here’s some links you can bookmark:

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/

Any storm that is present on the map is white and clickable. In addition there will be more information under the map stating the storm’s current location, traveling direction and current wind speed.

NOAA National Hurricane Center

Much like Wunderground’s tracker, NOAA’s brings the same information plus some extras, that being predictions (listed as probabilities). If you wanted to know what is most likely to happen with storm predictions, this is where you go to get that information.

Final notes:

The local news web sites (such as ABC Action News) do in fact have some really good storm tracking options but obviously "water down" the information to make it an easier read for most people.

We being geeks and nerds however prefer just a little extra.

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Drew
Yes, they like to sensationalize everything… like in that 08/18 @ 6:25EDT picture where it’s projected as a Cat 1 storm between Cuba and Key West – it has been a Tropical Storm since leaving the northern coast of Cuba and was never forecast as a Cat 1. The forecast dropped from a Cat 1 hurricane to a Tropical Storm between the 08/18 2pm and 08/18 5pm forecast.
I’ve been tracking this since Friday morning and ABC Action News has done nothing but make overboard statements ever since the news broke.
Great article all the same!