#Hurricane track map for free#
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#Hurricane track map professional#

Companies would distribute these for free as they were considered good advertising. Newspapers, television stations, radio stations, banks, restaurants, grocery stores, insurance companies, gas stations, the American Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state departments of emergency management, the National Weather Service, and its subagency the National Hurricane Center were the main suppliers of these charts. The maps would include place names, latitude and longitude lines, names of the storms on that year's list, along with hurricane preparedness information. This was more popular along sections of the southern Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast of the United States than the coast of California due to their increased danger of a landfalling tropical cyclone. Within the United States since at least 1956, during the Atlantic hurricane season, those within threatened states were provided hurricane tracking charts in order to follow tropical storms and hurricanes during the season for situational awareness. By October 1955, charts used for tropical cyclone tracking and forecasting operationally, such as United States Weather Bureau Form 770-17 and National Weather Service Chart HU-1, extended eastward to the African coast. Prior to the early 1940s, the term Cape Verde hurricane referred to August and early September storms that formed to the east of the surface plotting charts in use at the time. Their use led to an north Atlantic-based term still in use today: Cape Verde hurricane.

Tropical cyclone tracking charts were initially used for tropical cyclone forecasting and towards the end of the year for post season summaries of the season's activity.

#Hurricane track map software#

Geographic information system (GIS) software allows end users to underlay other layered files onto forecast storm tracks to anticipate future impacts.Ĭhart with concurrent information for Hurricane Arlene and Tropical Storm Bret logged and plotted With the advent of the internet in the 1990s, digitally-prepared charts began to include other information along with storm position and past track, including forecast track, areas of wind impact, and related watches and warnings. Those used by weather forecasters saved preparation times, allowing tropical cyclone advisories to be sent an hour earlier.

#Hurricane track map professional#

In paper form originally, computer programs were developed in the 1980s for personal home and use by professional weather forecasters. Charts include maps of the areas where tropical cyclones form and track within the various basins, include name lists for the year, basin-specific tropical cyclone definitions, rules of thumb for hurricane preparedness, emergency contact information, and numbers for figuring out where tropical cyclone shelters are open. New tropical cyclone information is available at least every six hours in the Northern Hemisphere and at least every twelve hours in the Southern Hemisphere.

In the north Atlantic basin, they are known as hurricane tracking charts. A tropical cyclone tracking chart is used by those within hurricane-threatened areas to track tropical cyclones worldwide.