Saturday, September 09, 2017

Hurricane Irma's Forecast Path Maps


Google has released a crisis map for Hurricane Irma. The Hurricane Irma Crisis Response Map shows the hurricane's forecast path as well as a number of layers to help people living in the storm zone.

The emergency layers for Hurricane Irma include public alerts, evacuation routes and the locations of shelters, gas stations & their fuel status. The map also includes layers to show the current cloud cover and precipitation.


Hurricane Irma is one of the strongest storms recorded in the Atlantic. The Caribbean islands of the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas and Cuba are all within the hurricane's current forecast error cone for the next few days. The storm is this expected to change to move in a more northerly direction, towards Florida.

You can view Hurricane Irma's forecast path on the Weather Channel's interactive map. The map shows the expected location of the hurricane for the next five days. At the time of writing the storm is expected to approach the Florida Keys on Saturday and could make landfall in Florida on Sunday. The Weather Channel's map includes a wind speed chart which shows the wind speed of the storm over the last five days and the forecast wind speeds over the next five days.


The New York Times has used data from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the National Weather Service to map 52 distinct forecasts of the storm’s path over the next few days. Instead of a forecast error cone this map shows 52 different tracks which provide a range of probability of Irma's path.

Esri's Hurricanes and Tropical Cyclones Overview map also shows the forecast path of Hurricane Irma. Esri's map includes wind speed forecasts. At the moment it forecasts that Hurricane Irma will have a maximum wind speed of 155 mph on Sunday as it approaches Florida. You can view the path of Hurricane Irma by selecting either the 'Northern Atlantic' or 'Gulf of Mexico' tabs above the map.


The most dramatic way of viewing Hurricane Irma's forecast path is to view it animated on Windy.com. This map animates winds speeds on an interactive map. Windy.com includes the option to animate the forecast wind speeds over the next week. Therefore if you press play on the map you can actually watch as Irma's forecast path is animated on the map.

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