Tracking archive

[hurricanetrack]

There are a lot of tracking map archives out there on the Internet now. I have worked hard on the one for HurricaneTrack.com over the past two years. My friend and colleague, Jason, has helped me along the way.

I just finished up all of the 2003 plot positions (16 named storms adds many more plots to the map!). But, the cool thing is that you can select ANY year going back to 1851. We took the best track data (don't remember where we found it- probably on the NHC site somewhere) and wrote a program that plotted out all the dots for us. Now, you can select a year, or multiple years and compare storms.

But wait, there's more:

You can zoom in on the maps to several regions. You can also move your mouse/pointer over any plot dot to see what the advisory info was. I think this makes our tracking archives at least run with some of the other famous ones out there. Just for fun, select all of the storms, hurricanes and depressions for 2003 and see what a mess it was out there. Then look closely- you'll see a pattern. All of the big hurricanes were in the Atlantic this year. Then, go back to 2002 and do the same thing, look at all of the storms/hurricanes for '02 and note where all the "action" was. It gives you a quick glimpse at what the overall track pattern was for any given year.

Check it out at:

http://www.hurricanetrack.com/JavaHist/

[mitchell]

We took the best track data (don't remember where we found it- probably on the NHC site somewhere)

Wow, This is the coolest thing since digital thermometers but SURELY you don't mean the part where you cant remember the source . I think any best track data from the 19th century is highly speculative (and wind speeds!)and demands sourcing to have credibility.
Cite your sources!

[Hurricanehink]

Wow, that it is a lot better than the way other historical weather sites use it. Like on Unisys, you have to scroll down to the storm, look up its cooridinates, go back to the actual map.... That is an excellent way to show the data, and I am very amazed how well it is. Good job with that, and soon, you'll be able to add all of the 2003 post season track. I have a new place to look up storms now.

[hurricanetrack]

In reference to my post about HurricaneTrack.com's tracking archives and me not remembering where we got the data, well here it is:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastall.shtml

Scroll down to the bottom and look at thr HURDAT Section. We simply downloaded the raw file and compiled it into our JAVA program.

We now have 1851-2003 track data on the site in our JAVA tracking archives.

I could not remember exactly where we had found the raw data, but it was the NHC site on their acrhives page.

[Anonymous]

Excellent work HT

[senorpepr]

Outstanding!!! I always loved using the java tracking charts on your site.

[hurricanetrack]

Thanks for the votes of confidence on the tracking archives at my site.

Check this out, it is fun and will waste some time while we wait for another hurricane season....

go to the tracking archives at HurricaneTrack.com:

http://www.hurricanetrack.com/JavaHist

Then try to remember all of the major hurricanes since and including 1995. Go through each year, 95-03 and select ONLY the major hurricanes to display on the map. It takes some practive to learn the interface, we'll work on that over time. Anyhow, you'll end up with hurricanes like Opal, Georges, Mitch, Fran, Floyd, Isabel, etc. Look at all of the activity with the cat-3s and up, and look how FEW hit the U.S.

We already know that there is a deficit to the numbers of major hurricanes landfalls, but to see it graphically is kind of cool. There are SO MANY out in the open Atlantic- of course some fizzled like Lili or Floyd and Isabel. But still, to see just how luck we've been since 1995 is astounding.

[hurricanetrack]

Boy, I've got to learn how to use the spell checker!