FAQ : HURRICANES, TYPHOONS, AND TROPICAL CYCLONES

Part I : Real-Time Information

By Christopher W. Landsea (NHC)
NOAA AOML/Hurricane Research Division
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, Florida 33149
chris.landsea@noaa.gov

Version 2.6
13 January, 1998

I : REAL TIME INFORMATION

I1) Where can I get real-time advisories for tropical cyclones?
I2) Where can I get real-time tropical weather analyses and forecast fields?
I3) Where can I get real-time ship and buoy data?
I4) Where can I get real-time sea surface temperature data?
I5) Where can I get real-time satellite pictures and satellite products?
I6) Where can I get real-time radar data?
I7) Where can I get real-time hurricane aircraft reconnaissance data?
I8) Where can I get real-time forecasts of tropical cyclone motion?
I9) Where can I get tropical cyclone preparedness information?
I10) What computer software is available for tracking tropical cyclones?

Subject: I1) Where can I get real-time advisories for tropical cyclones?

There are three good ways to get these. Either telnet to a site and peruse the advisories you would like to see via a menu, have the advisories sent directly to you via email, or visit sites via the World Wide Web.

Option 1: Telnet to a site

The site that has a very comprehensive listing is the Weather Underground at University of Michigan. Simply telnet to:

downwind.sprl.umich.edu 3000

Make sure to include the '3000' at the end of the command. From there you have a simple menu driven system to get to the US National Hurricane Center, the US Central Pacific Hurricane Center, and the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center products.

Option 2: Advisories automatically sent to you

WX-TROPL was created for people who want receive, as an email, tropical bulletins originating from the US OAR, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. To get information as to how to sign up onto WX-TROPL, ftp to

po.uiuc.edu

anduse anonymous FTP to retrieve the file WX-TALK.DOC from the directory "wx-talk". If you don't have ftp access, contact either Chris Novy or Charley Kline.

Option 3: Get the advisories via surfing the Web

(provided by Gary Gray)

The World Wide Web is a great source for real-time tropical cyclone advisories. For brevity here are some reliable http sites :

(provided by Gary Gray):

gopher://geograf1.sbs.ohio-state.edu:70/1/Tropical => Ohio State Gopher (good source)
http://ws321.uncc.edu/data/tropical => UNCC (All Atlantic advisories)
http://banzai.neosoft.com/citylink/blake/tropical.html => Atlantic Tropical Weather Center (everything)
http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/tropical.html => U-Mich WxNet (most info available)
http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/us/hurricane.shtml => IWIN Tropical Page (full advisory list)
http://lumahai.soest.hawaii.edu/Tropical_Weather/tropical.shtml => U-Hawaii (map)
http://www.oar.noaa.gov/products.html => Tropical Prediction Center Products (all products)
http://www.atms.unca.edu/%7Efarr/hurricane97.html => Hurricane '97 Page (simple & excellent)
http://www.ih2000.net/ira/bmt-wth.htm => IH2000 (strike probs & track maps)
http://www.typhoon.org.hk/ => Hong Kong Tropical Center (all basins)
http://www.weather.brockport.edu/cgi-bin/hurricane => SUNY Brockport Hurricane Page (nice, simple search)
http://hurricane.terrapin.com/ => Terrapin Associates (interesting site)
http://www.storm97.com/satellite => Hurricane Central (nice site with lots of info)
http://www.upr.clu.edu/nws/ => Puerto Rico NWS (advisories - English & Spanish)
http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/tropical.html => U-Hawaii (all basins)
http://www.weathercenter.com/hurrican/home.htm => Tampa Bay Online (nice local info as well)
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/7311 => A variety of tropical weather info

Subject: I2) Where can I get real-time tropical weather analyses and forecast fields?

(Provided by Gary Gray.)

gopher://geograf1.sbs.ohio-state.edu:70/1/Tropical => Ohio State Tropical Page (lots of info)
http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/fiorino/wxmap/wx.htm => FNMOC (NOGAPS, MRF, AVN)
http://banzai.neosoft.com/citylink/blake/tropical.html => Atlantic Tropical Weather Center (most products)
http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/tropical.html => U-Mich WxNet (most info available)
http://grads.iges.org/pix/trop.00hr.html => GRADS Tropical Page (nice tropical graphics)
http://lumahai.soest.hawaii.edu/Tropical_Weather/tropical.shtml => U-Hawaii (outlook)
http://www.oar.noaa.gov/products.html => Tropical Prediction Center Products (most products)
http://www.oar.noaa.gov/products1.html => Tropical Prediction Center Products- Page 2 (more great products)
http://www.atms.unca.edu/%7Efarr/hurricane96.html => Hurricane '96 Page (many products)
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/fax/marine.shtml => NWS Marine Fax Charts (some unique maps)
http://www.sims.net/links/hurricane.shtml => SIMS (good set of info)
http://www.utmb.edu/hurricane.shtml => UTMB (basic info)
http://www.justsurfit.com/main.html => HurriCam (Miami hurricane weather-cam!)

Subject: I3) Where can I get real-time ship and buoy data?

(Provided by Gary Gray.)

 http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/wrldmap.shtml => NDBC (Excellent interactive site!)
http://www.ems.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wx/offshore.cgi => PSU Offshore Wx Data (nice source by region)
http://banzai.neosoft.com/citylink/blake/tropical.html => Atlantic Tropical Wx Center (great source)
http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/tropical.html => U-Mich WxNet (good set of data)
http://www.nws.fsu.edu/buoy => NWS Tallahassee (great graphic buoy/cman source)
http://www.sims.net/links/hurricane.shtml => SIMS (link to interactive data)
Subject: I4) Where can I get real-time sea surface temperature data?

(Provided by Gary Gray.)

http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/tropical.html => U-Mich WxNet (several products)
http://ssec.ssec.wisc.edu/data/sst/latest_sst.gif => SSEC (global SST image)
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/fax/marine.shtml => NWS Marine Fax Site (a few different "styles")
http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/fiorino/wxmap/wx.htm => FNMOC (NOGAPS, MRF, AVN)
http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/images.html => RSMAS (several good SST maps)
http://www.sims.net/links/hurricane.shtml => SIMS (global SST image)
http://www.fnoc.navy.mil/otis/otis.html => FNOC (SST and anomaly maps)
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/realtime/realtime.html#gesst => SSEC (GOES SST estimate)
http://www.weathercenter.com/hurrican/home.htm => Tampa Bay Online (local SST numbers)

Subject: I5) Where can I get real-time satellite pictures and satellite products?

(Provided by Gary Gray.)

 gopher://geograf1.sbs.ohio-state.edu:70/1/wxascii/gophergrafx/satpix => OSU Gopher (several pix)
http://banzai.neosoft.com/citylink/blake/tropical.html => Atlantic Tropical Wx Center (many good pix)
http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/sat-bin/tc_home => NRL Monterey Tropical Cyclone Page (all basins)
http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/tropical.html => U-Mich WxNet (a few good pix)
http://grads.iges.org/listing/wx.html => GRADS Sat Pix (nice GOES-8/9 full disk images)
http://lumahai.soest.hawaii.edu/Tropical_Weather/tropical.shtml => U-Hawaii
http://tuna@www.alw.nih.gov/weather.html => ALW (many pix have bad links)
http://www.atms.unca.edu/%7Efarr/hurricane97.html => Hurricane '97 Page (the basics)
http://www.bbsr.edu/Weather => Bermuda Weather (Bermudocentric & other sat pix)
http://www.met.fsu.edu/explores/canesat.html => FSU Explores! (tropics)
http://www.sims.net/links/hurricane.shtml => SIMS (several decent sat pix)
http://www.t-e.k12.pa.us/~dbaron/satellite/ => DBaron's Satellite Reference (tons of sat pix)
http://www.typhoon.org.hk/ => Hong Kong Weather Center (few pix, but all basins)
http://wxp.atms.purdue.edu:80/satellite.shtml => Purdue WXP (several pix)
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/hurricane/ => Orlando Sentinel (Florida sat pix)
http://www.goes.noaa.gov/ => NOAA GOES site (excellent selection!)
http://www.storm97.com/satellite => Hurricane Central (several nice shots)
http://www.upr.clu.edu/nws/ => Puerto Rico NWS (local sat pix)
http://www.skywarn-texas.org/ => Texas Skywarn (nice sat pic on tropical page)
http://oldthunder.ssec.wisc.edu/ => University of Wisconsin SSEC (Chris Velden's work)
http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/sat_products.html => U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (Jeff Hawkins' site)
http://www.cira.colostate.edu => Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (Ray Zehr's work)
http://orbit7i.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/goes.html => FPDT (GOES products!!!!)
http://orbit7i.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/temp.html => FPDT Soundings (CAPE, LI, TPW, temps from GOES!)
http://orbit7i.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/skewt.html => FPDT Skew-Ts (GOES skew-t diagrams!)
http://orbit7i.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/dpi.html => FPDT DPI (GOES Derived Product Imagery!)
http://orbit7i.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/wind.html => FPDT Winds (several GOES winds products!)
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/realtime/realtime.html => SSEC (GOES products, including SST)
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/~nws/branick2.html => National Severe Storm Lab - explanation of satellite terms
Subject: I6) Where can I get real-time radar data?

(Provided by Gary Gray.)

 http://banzai.neosoft.com/citylink/blake/tropical.html => Atlantic Tropical Wx Center (nice source)
http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/tropical.html => U-Mich WxNet (full set of rad pix)
http://tuna@www.alw.nih.gov/weather.html => Mid-Atlantic Weather (Mid-Atlantic sites)
http://www.atms.unca.edu/%7Efarr/hurricane97.html => Hurricane '97 Page (decent selection)
http://www.ih2000.net/ira/bmt-wth.htm => TexNet (coastal TX radar only)
http://wxp.atms.purdue.edu:80/radar.shtml => Purdue WXP (coarse radar images)
http://www.storm97.com/satellite => Hurricane Central (nice radar shotes)
http://www.weathercenter.com/hurrican/home.htm => Tampa Bay Online (Florida radar)
http://www.skywarn-texas.org/ => Texas Skywarn (interesting U.S. radar shot!)
http://www.intellicast.com/weather/usa/ => Intellicast ("THE" radar site)
Subject: I7) Where can I get real-time hurricane aircraft reconnaissance data?

(Provided by Gary Gray.)

 gopher://geograf1.sbs.ohio-state.edu:70/1/Tropical => Ohio State Gopher (good recon lists)
http://banzai.neosoft.com/citylink/blake/tropical.html => Atlantic Tropical Wx Center (decent source)
http://www.oar.noaa.gov/products1.html => Tropical Prediction Center (excellent site)
http://ws321.uncc.edu/data/tropical/recon => UNCC (simple recon report grabber)
http://www.funet.fi/pub/dx/text/utility/Hurricane => FUNET (decoding info)
ftp://metlab1.met.fsu.edu/pub/weather/tropical/POD/00latest => FSU Explores! (TCPOD & recon reports)
http://www.403wg.afrc.af.mil/ => Hurricane Hunters (interesting site, includes decode info)
Subject: I8) Where can I get real-time model forecasts of tropical cyclone motion?

(Provided by Gary Gray.)

 http://www.nws.noaa.gov/fax/marine.shtml => NWS Marine Products (not models, but some forecasts)
http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/fiorino/wxmap/wx.htm => FNMOC (NOGAPS, MRF, AVN)
http://wxp.atms.purdue.edu:80/ => Purdue WXP (ETA, NGM, AVN, MRF, ECMWF)
http://asp1.sbs.ohio-state.edu/fcstimages.html => OSU (ETA, NGM, AVN, MRF, ECMWF, meso-ETA)
http://grads.iges.org/pix/wx.html => COLA/IGES (ETA, AVN, MRF)
http://www.atmos.albany.edu/das/nwp.html => Albany (NGM, ETA, meso-ETA)
http://www2.smart.net/~gdmgeg/tropical.html => Millennium Weather (TRANTECH model)
Subject: I9) Where can I get tropical cyclone preparedness information?

(Provided by Gary Gray.)

 http://www.fema.gov/fema/trop.htm => FEMA (general preparedness info)
http://www.redcross.org/news/disaster/96/hcane.html => Red Cross (general preparedness info)
http://xenocide.nando.net/nao/hurricane => Hurricane Watch (prep. info and NC Flood/Evac map!!)
http://www.shadow.net/~mdcc01/hurricane.shtml => Dade Co. BCCO (building code info and S FL Evac map!)
http://www.dailyxpress.com/hurricane/index.htm => WAVY-TV 10 (excellent preparedness site)
http://www.vdot.state.va.us/traf/hurricane.shtml => Virginia DOT (VA evacuation maps!!)
http://www.swfrpc.org/hurr.htm => SW Florida RPC (flood maps and study!!)
http://www.wptv.com/family.html => Hurricane Survival Guide (general preparedness info)
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/hurricane/ => Orlando Sentinel (general preparedness info)
http://www.upr.clu.edu/nws/ => Puerto Rico NWS (general preparedness info)
http://www.weathercenter.com/hurrican/home.htm => Tampa Bay Online (general preparedness info)
Subject: I10) What computer software is available for tracking tropical cyclones?

(Descriptions kindly provided by Tom Berg and via the authors. Note that this does not constitute an endorsement of any product.)

Low $ indicates less than $50 Medium $ indicates between $50-100 High $ indicates more than $100
  1. HURRTRAK (Windows-based) --- shareware, semi-functional available on Compuserve in Aviation and Weather Channel forums. Also on AOL. It is also available through the WeatherNet:
    http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/software.html

    The company is:

    PC Weather Products
P.O. Box 72723
Marietta, GA  30007-2723
404-953-3506
1-800-605-2230

    They primarily market their professional versions (High $), but still provide a hobbyist edition(Medium $). The professional versions allows for many additional capabilities such as plotting county lines and roadways, more detailed charts, detailed impact reports as well as animation and strike probabilities. See their WEBsite at :

    http://www.pcwp.com

  2. STORM (DOS-based) ------ shareware, semi-functional available on AOL. The company is 
    Utopia Software
P.O. Box 420324
Houston,  TX  77242

    They offer a regular (Low $) and enhanced (Medium $) version. What the enhanced offers special is the ability to enter and plot the forecasted positions from the NHC and to include offshore platforms or ships positions on the charts.

  3. FORCE12 (Windows) ---- shareware, semi-functional available on Compuserve in Aviation and Weather Channel forums and AOL. The company is 
    Epperson Computing
P.O. Box 1094
Baytown, TX  77522-1094

    There is only one version (Low $).

  4. MERLIN (DOS) ----- shareware, semi-functional available on Compuserve in Aviation and Weather Channel forums. The company is 
    T.M. Parker
P.O. Box 1431
La Porte,  TX  77572

    There is only one version (Low $).

  5. GCANES (DOS) ----- shareware, semi-functional available on Compuserve in Aviation forum. The company is 
    Robert Terwilliger
2398 SW 22nd Ave.
Miami,  FL     33145

    There is only one version (Low $).

  6. HURRICANE FORECASTER (DOS) - shareware, semi-functional available on AOL. The company is 
      Craig Rorrer
3809 Iola Ct.
Virginia Beach, VA 23456

    There is only one version (Low $).

  7. HURRICANE TRACKER (Windows) -- shareware, semi-functional available on Compuserve forum Aviation. The company is 
    Nicheware
P.O. Box 1312
Summerville,SC 29484-1312

    There is only one version (Low $).

  8. HURRICANE WATCH! (Windows) --- shareware, semi-functional available on Compuserve forum Aviation and AOL. The company is 
    SeaBorne Systems
414 Long Leaf Acres Dr.
Wilmington, NC  28405

    There is only one version (Low $).

  9. TRACKEYE (Windows) ----- shareware, semi-functional available on Compuserve forums Aviation and Weather Channel. The company is 
    GenCode Technologies
7907 N. Rome Ave.
Tampa, FL   33604

    There is only one version (Low $).

  10. TRAKHUR (DOS) --- I only found it advertised in Weatherwise magazine. The company is 
    Bryan Lambeth, PE
Hurricane Research Srvc
P.O. Box 181032
Austin,  TX 78718

    The version I have is TRAKHUR PRO (Medium $). The regular version is Low $.

  11. TRACKER (DOS) -- again, I found it through Weatherwise. The company is 
    OceanSoft Inc.
P.O. Box 1224
Largo,  FL  34649

    TRACKER (Medium $) also includes something unique called Mapper, this allows you to build your own maps of any ocean and will show the map in Mercator, Azimuthal, and spread types.

  12. WINSTORM --- shareware, semi-functional available on Compuserve forum Aviation and AOL. The company is 
    Ingramation
2437 Bay Area Blvd.
Suite 349
Houston, TX   77058
  13. MCHURRICANE -- a hurricane tracking program for the Macintosh, posted on AOL, along with several shareware (Low $) CDs. The company is 
    William I. Chenault
149 Country Club Rd
Shalimar, FL 32579
(904)-651-2276
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