Hurricane season is upon us again and Irene is making her way toward the U. S. Eastern seaboard at the time of this writing. Interest in tracking hurricanes online and with smartphone apps is at an all-time high, and if that interests you, here are some great resources for you.
National Hurricane Center
National Hurricane Center Mobile Site
This one is from the National Weather Service (NWS). The site has basic information presented in a clear and concise manner. There are lots of menu options for other weather-related products from the NWS, some of which get pretty technical. But for basic hurricane information, this site is a good one to start with.The mobile site works well from a handheld device and doesn’t take the time to load any graphics unless you click to load the maps. It’s very fast for quick updates on storm status.
StormPulse
Stormpulse is divided in to several sections to keep it simple: Your local area weather, Atlantic Hurricanes, Pacific Hurricanes and U.S. Weather. The site gives you all the basic information you need at a quick glance and has a free version and a paid version. The paid version seems to be mostly for enterprise users and the main benefit is that you get full-screen maps. Site is useful without a subscription.
NowCOAST
If you’re a little more serious about your hurricanes, you might try NowCOAST. This site is more detailed than most of the other sites we checked, and gives you complete control over how you view the data. It seems to require Internet Explorer so don’t expect this one to work in your Firefox. There may be too many options here for the causal user.
StormTrack
This site offers java animated tracks of the storm so far as well as predictions of movement. You can also find all weather advisories related to each storm at the site. Animations are simple but informative.
IbisEye
IbisEye has one of the best-looking sites for storm tracking at first glance. A lot of control over how the data is presented is afforded and a full archive of storms going back to 1992 is available. This is one of the best sites but it does not appear to offer animations. However, you can control the zoom level from the entire planet to street level.
IbisEye is undergoing frequent updates and is very busy at times so if you don’t get it to load right away, wait a couple of minutes and try again. You may find it to be worth the wait.
Weather Underground
Comprehensive coverage of hurricanes and other weather patterns across the United States. A variety of maps and animations to choose from. Easy site to navigate and use.
U.S. Navy Storm Site
You really do have to be a weather geek to understand much of what is available at this site, but it’s included here because it has frequently-updated satellite imagery and a wealth of information for those who know how to interpret it. If you want to learn more about the data presented here, there is a link you can click on to learn more about the terminology and functionality of this site.
The Weather Channel and Accuweather also have hurricane tracking available on their websites as do many local TV stations across the country, Fox News, and CNN.
Smartphone Apps
If you’re a smartphone user and don’t relish the thought of searching around on that small screen for the information you need, there are a few apps that can help you. All platforms have weather apps available, but there are some apps that are dedicated to hurricanes or perform strongly in that area. Here are a few for Blackberry, iPhone and Android.
Blackberry
Storm Watch ($6.99) is a highly-rated storm tracking app for the Blackberry. From the company’s website, it is “a new, graphically driven Severe Weather tracking tool for Travelers, Storm Chasers and the Serious Student of Dangerous Weather.”
iPhone/iPad
Not surprisingly, there are many apps available for tracking storms on the iPhone. Hurricane HD ($2.99) from HurricaneTrack.com provides videos and up-to-date stats. Hurricane Tracker (free, or $1.99 for full version) has maps that are updated on-the-fly and offers push-alerts. Other apps include Hurricane Watch ($1.99, or $2.99 for HD version), Hurricane Tracking Center (free), and Hurricane Track (free).
The Stormpulse website says that an iPad app will be available for their site soon. You can sign up to be notified when it is available.
Android
For your Android, check out Hurricane Tracker ($1.49), Hurricane Hound (free, or $1.99 for full version), Hurricane Net ($0.99) and SeaStorm ($1.99).
Hopefully you can find something here that will give you the information you need in a comfortable presentation. If you know of other sites or apps you’d like to tell us about, please leave a comment.
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