Welcome, and a review of features
This blog is intended to keep users of Stormpulse.com up-to-date on the current status of the site, to solicit and respond to feedback, and to provide a place where you can comment on what you would like to see on the site next. I’d like this to be not just a platform, but a conversation piece. As we make announcements and improvements to the site, we want your feedback–not because it’s flattering that you would take time out of your day to do so (although it is), but because your feedback will be the lifeblood of this site, and whether it serves your needs during hurricane season.
I’d like to take the opportunity to tell you what the site does so far, since the interface isn’t so far along that these things are obvious:
- You can view hurricanes and hurricane season dating back to 1851 by entering in a URL such as: http://www.stormpulse.com/hugo, or http://www.stormpulse.com/1944.
- Cloud cover (updated every 6 hours) is available back to 2005. Coverage is still a bit spotty and you may notice some to be missing. In time (literally a matter of weeks), we will have cloud cover back to 2002.
- The map interface is meant to be like that of Google Maps–you can click or drag your mouse to pan, and use the + or - buttons at the top-left to zoom in and out.
- Clicking a city when a storm is active provides you with wind probabilities for that location over the next 5 days. On the other hand, clicking on a city doesn’t do anything (yet) when the storm you have selected isn’t an active cyclone. However, it will draw a yellow line and provide the distance from the selected storm (and plotpoint) and the city over which you hover your mouse.
- You can interact with storm data at the most granular level by clicking on a plotpoint in the storm’s track. This will jump you to that point in the storm’s history.
- We currently have issues with Internet Explorer and the site. If you want to get the most out of the site, we strongly recommend Firefox.
- Clicking on a storm in the “2006 Storm Season Summary” should open up a historical description of the storm and pan over to the storm in the map window.
- Satellite images update every half-hour or so. We are collecting water vapor, infrared, rgb, visible, and more, but only displaying rgb and ir for now. This will change in the near future, hopefully with a better way of organizing them as well.
- Yahoo! News articles are brought in from around the web relating to ‘hurricanes’.
- Present weather conditions for land and sea stations are available in a table-format down below the satellite images.
- Photos are being pulled in from Flickr that relate to the content ‘in focus’. This works on a limited basis, but if you want to give it a try, go to http://www.stormpulse.com/katrina and watch the photos change in the ‘Tropical Weather Photos’ area of the page–they should go from photos for the 2006 hurricane season to images captured during Katrina.
Those are some of the features of the site for now. Please let us know what you think and what else you like to see. While we could do many, many things, right now we want to make sure we do one thing well–satisfy the primary needs you have for a site during hurricane season, and, in whatever measure possible, do it in a way that is intuitive and beautiful.
104 Comments so far
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Great job.. this is an awesome and useful mashup to say the least!
Glenn (GISuser.com)
Met you at the FL GHC. Nice layout.
Thanks!
Fantastic presentation! Would like to see an on/off toggle for cloud cover, tho..
Hi Ed,
Thanks! A clouds on/off toggle is actually already built in our development environment and will be available on the live site sometime early next week. Thanks for the suggestion! Keep ‘em coming!
Excellent site, I am just learning to find my way around.
Are there maps that show sea surface tempeature?
Thanks!
how do U email the picture to a friend?
Fred, you mean the map? There’s not a feature to do that yet. Would you want to email it as a jpeg or would you just want to be able to send your friend a link that would show him exactly what you’re seeing?
Where the wind speed measured at the ground level or in the eye of the hurricane?
With technology that measured wind speeds?
Thanks,
Good Job! - That comes from a Movie….
An excellent job, keep it up and alive.
What a terrific site everyone. I have a son in Florida as well as many friends and your wonderful website has enabled me to keep up to date. Thanks very much Great work!!
Incredible site!!
Thank you for your hard work!!
This site clarifies what the weather reports leave out.
Are you able to do the east pacific?We live in Cabo san Lucas Baja Mexico
@lynn
No Pacific basin coverage yet. We have seen several requests lately for us to do the East Pacific. I would hope this is something we can get to, if not this season, then in time for next year.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Can you create a shared service from this site for others to use your data and layers in an existing web service?….this would be great for our company to track a storm in relation to our assets and better asses the needs for emergency planning.
Great Site!
Thanks!
The picture is too dark for me to see much–how do I adjust? I access via Internet Exporer. Thanks
This is really great. Family in Florida so I watch what is going on, also would like to see in the future for Hawaii storms, live there.
Super duper site, just love it. I live in the Caribbean and do alot of boating so it will be most useful for me. Thanks alot and keep up the great work.
rgds,
Roger
Job well done!!!
found when I was fooling around on http://www.mahalo.com and I found a new source for my tracks and quick and comprenhensive updates.
Brady in Lake Charles, La. Excellent interactive website. Especially useful is the ability to determine distance from a forecasted point to a city. Given the forecast of Gustav being 60 miles from Lake Charles, at its closest, with winds at 90…as predicted by the NHC, makes it a bit more bearable. House it boarded up and am just about ready for landfall. A 20 KW natural gas generator, provided no tree falls on it, should make this stay a bit more comfortable than Rita. I will try to repost updates as long as the cable is up and running.
Pam:reply to your post…8.28.08
A “dark” screen has nothing to do with Internet Explorer or the website. Check your monitors Contrast and Brightness settings.
as for issues with “Internet Explorer”, I run IE7 and have no issues what so ever…..I could give you a long list of whey IE is faster and more secure than Firefox, but that would only bore you to tears..
ps…love the site
Great Web Site. Fast,easy access, great maps. I lived in Palm Bch. County, Fl. for 36 yrs. Relocated to N.C two yrs. ago. Still have family there. Keeping track of these storms with you. Thanks. Good job!
This is what I’m looking for… nice to see the winds speed projections for different cities… the models… etc. Good job.
Just started exploring site - looks interesting. My son, who works with the ISS, told me about it and he’s really excited with what you are doing. An old-timer like me will probably not understand and appreciate the info, but am glad to have another site to monitor. Problem: On my screen, the distances from the cities is partially hidden. How can I see this? Right now (Sunday,4:20 p.m. CDT)in the Pensacola area, we are having short bursts of rain storms and the wind is picking up. I have interests in MS, so am watching closely. Thank you…
Great site! This is by far the best storm tracking site I have seen yet that is available to the general public. Keep up the good work!
This is the best tracking map, I found you from Coast to Coast AM, they had your up on their site. A suggestion, if is would be possible to add a city. Each user can add their own home town to get info and interaction on you map. GREAT JOB,
I am from Mississippi just above Baton Rouge La. I will be watching through the night and all day Monday, Take Care everyone.
This is the best website I’ve ever seen that didn’t have the word “google” in it!
:-)
Love this site-being from New England -hurricanes are in our blood!!! Can you explain the shaded area on either side of the track and hat the different colors mean. Thanks
I have software for tracking but it has Vista issues, After finding your site I don’t need other programs! Super Graphics, Just a great site!! Thanks Tom
PS It would be nice to have a add my city feature, cause living in the FL panhandle has me keeping an eye on things!
Great site. Hope you will consider doing the west coast in the future especially the Baja. Was in a hurricane last year in Cabo and would loved to have had the information youhave on these hurricanes in the Atlantic. Very good info and useful if you happen to be in the path. Headed to Puerto Vallarta Saturday and hope NOT to see a hurricane this time. Last year we were in the eye, not much of a vacation that year. LOL.
How can a downlad a desk top program to click on to bring up this site
Great job BEST site to track hurricanes!!!!! Are you planning to support blackeberry or Iphone to track storms/hurricanes?
Great site. I was stuck on Grand Cayman during Gustav and could track the storm.
I would like to be able to download some of the tack cones and wind speed area shape files for use at my company to determine exposure to loss.
Fantastic site, best of the rest and no others compare.
Would make a great live desktop background so it was in front of you as soon as you turned on your comp.
Keep up the great job.
Living in the Bahamas, I have found that this web site is just as good as NHC.NOAA. Tracking both Hanna and IKE is great how ever you left out one of the island in the Bahamas and thats Grand Bahama. Keep it up and will look for you again this year and next season.
I just found out about this website today and it is absolutely fantastic! It’s the perfect tropical season companion for a weather geek like me =) Thanks for all of your hard work!!!
Very nice site - I have a SharePoint site - do you have any feeds that I could plug into?
As others have said, great site. One thing I can’t find is a way to get out of the full screen mode. Also, it would be nice to have a pop up tip display when you hover a forcast point explaining what the different markings mean. The info box updates when you click on the point, but there are additional items displayed such as different levels of wind field (i think) that could use an explination. I’m sure it’s a work in progress, and the progress so far has ben excellent! Keep up the good work.
David
Great site! Only learned about it today now that Hanna is about ready to come up my street. I will be posting a reference to your site on a boat owner’s forum I am active in.
A question please..
When I click on a projected point on a track a graphic of the 4 quadrants appears with different radii for each quadrant, which I assume is related somehow to the possible error in the projected position, but I am not sure of the “units”. Can you please let me know if I am on the right track? (Pun intended!)
Hi,
Great site!
Can I ..or do you have an icon…that I can put on my desktop…!
thanks,
dennis
I would love to be able to overlay historical hurricaines over active hurricaines (and their forecast track) - ie, overlay Andrew on top of Ike’s track, for instance
Matthew,
As I have said, there is no other site that so clearly and beautifully depicts the storm potential as Stormpulse. Keep up this excellent work.
Harvey
This site is so awesome. Better than local weather information. Live in Louisiana. Ike please disapate…Leave zero distruction in your path.
Amazing site.
Can you break Canada out in your weather section as a separate site instead of under “International”? You guessed it, I live in Canada, eh!
BTW I found your site by a hotlink from a CNN article this week. Never heard of you until then. Such a great site I have you bookmarked on all 3 of my computers.
What an excellent site this is. Living in England and my daughter,her husband and two children living on the island of Grand Bahama Your site has enabled me to keep track of Hannah and Ike. Well done. It has saved me a lot of anxiety. From rain soaked and flooded England, thank you so much.
Love this site!
I would like to be able to interact with, via toggle on/off, the ‘watch’ and ‘warning’ areas along the coasts.
Thanks!!!
Fantastic site! I got a link from my husband who got it from his boss. This site is really making the rounds. Soon, you’ll be on every computer!!! We live in Florida so this information is critical to us!. Ike was originally aiming for Ft. Lauderdale and crossing the state, right over our house (by the looks of that original track), but now it’s not a threat to Florida at all.
The options are great, too. How about a ‘preferences’ tab so we can set options permanently?
To those who what a desktop icon, bookmark it (Firefox) and keep a tab open for it. Quicker than an icon.
Great Site.
I do weather updates during hurricane season for WTVK - Local Paradise TV - in Key West. We go live to air and I post them to You Tube as well. This site is incredibly useful as we are a one man (and one woman) operation. We are the only station that actually broadcasts (UHF31) so when Comcast and the satellites go off the air (which is for 3-4 days during every storm) we are the only source of information. Thanks. Keep up the great work.
My first time to this site. Still looking around. But, think its great so far. Shout’n out from NOLA.
Great information wonderfully presented. Is there a way to see High & Low pressure areas depicted, particularly those that might influence a storm’s path? We’re really watching Ike in the Houston area.
This is a great site for me since I live in Florida. It would be nice to have an option where we could embed the html code to add it to our personal web page.
Wuao!!! nicely done.
still working my way around the site, is there any way you can customize the information for your own city? Keep the outstanding work!
are there plans for an Iphone version? unfortunately Iphone does not run Flash based sites, but you might find the way around it, anyway it is the best so far in tracking weather. I will recommend it to all my colleagues, and friends.
how about more timely updates? 6 hour delays in updates is REALLY bad. fantastic layout and graphics, but the data is so old we can’t really say this is a ‘good’ site.
For example- on IKE, you show 9am last update, but all the other hurricane centers are at 2pm.
thanks!!
WOW! We live just out of Baton Rouge and I checked your site just before we lost utilities on Monday. You were the only site who showed Hurricane Gustav had turned a bit North, that meant we were going to be in the eye’s back wind wall. Thanks to your site we had a better idea of what to expect. Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas got a lot of damage from this storm. A lot of us are still without utilities. But praise God….New Orleans was safe!!!! (sarcasm here)
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This is really informative - and cool! Sitting here in Houston I was nervous about IKE - now I am starting to shake!! Thanks for the effort - would be interested in some of the answers to the above questions regarding customization etc for a low tech user like me. Thanks again.
Love the site - great graphics. My husband is a firefighter and his shift on the department use your site to track the hurricanes that have been affecting our area. I hope you plan on adding a link to e-mail this site to friends(some of them have had a hard time finding your site). Thanks!
Boortz.com linked this place up, very nice. I like how you can look up every system since the mid-1800’s also.
Great Job, easy to follow and understandable. Please if you add more features don’t complicate the user.
Thanks for your nice work.
Marcelo.
It it possible to have this as one’s desktop image (fully functioning, of course)? thanks.
Great site! As a South Florida resident, i was wondering if you we planning on adding watch and warning graphics.
Thanks and keep up the great work!
Excellent work M,
Have lived on the east coast of Florida for 45 yrs. This the best, Thank you.
mykldee
This is not a prediction site like the site said but the image is great Google earth and motion would be cool. I think it puts things thing into a more perspective of whats up Great job Outer banks NC
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hey do you guys have any plans to add an rss feed to the site? i love the site, but would love to be able to utilize an rss feed.
Site is great, I noticed that watching Channel five NBC in the Palm Beach Area that they now have your site in their weather…We found it befor they did……
Great site! I think it would be beneficial to toggle on/off isobars to depict pressure systems that drive the path of hurricanes, also as someone else mention to toggle on/off full screen mode.
Keep up the good work and i look forward to your enhancements!
Can you make the colors brighter — especially the map background — or in the alternative allow the user to alter the colors? Great content - but the map is an eye strain for older eyes [age 62]
thanks
Bob M
Is there one of the NHC’s computer models that is historically more accurate? If so, which one? I live on the Texas coast and when the models range 100-200 miles apart in their respective estimates, it is hard to know when to act. Great information source!!!
i love this site and would like to be able to overlay past storms over current ones like critter42 said on 9-6-2008
Great site. I have forwarded the link to many and they are equally pleased with he info.
My only problem is that I cannot figure out how to exite out of FULL SCREEN mode with out reloading the URL.
We have been using this site to compare the storm tracks to drilling rig locations in the GOM. It would be incredibly helpful if we were able to input the coordinates of these installations so we could view the distances at different projected times.
I am from the Cayman Islands and someone told me about this cool site to track hurricane Gustav by. I must say it is the BEST I have ever seen. Now every where i go i tell people to check it out and thats all we used for Ike .I LOVE IT.
Hi,
Just to say the site is great. I work in Lloyds of London and I noted several underwriters using this as their offical storm track guide. You cant really get more proffesional acknowledgement than that. We have been using it to track and note any potential US insurance loses.
Cheers, keep the site going, improving and looking sexy
Hi Guys, It sure is great to tune in at my convenience and not have to wait for T.V. reports. (and to see what’s happening, not what some reporter says.) Thanks for a great job.
storm pulse saved my life.
root canals come to mind when I contemplate things I’d rather do than watch televised news casters. so if it wasn’t for this site and CLPS, i would have never known to evacuate for hurricane ike here in Mobile, Alabama.
In Beaumont, TX, I can not make up my mind to stay in my home or leave. My house is 40 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and 27 feet above sea level. I would prefer to head for San Antonio to visit my granddaughter. If power and water and TV are out after the storm, I will go to San Antonio. I also have relatives in Abilene, TX, and Dallas. Our roof shingles were damaged in Rita ( $9,000 )but no high water, tree damage, flooding or broken windows. I have eleven big sliding doors with extra strength glass. Two have broken in 40 years from rocks from a mower and edger. They just announced schools will be closed today.
Wow!!!! Just days ago I was directed to your site…
Unfreaking real!!! Talk about iconoclastic -thinking outside of box…
Hands down, the biggest issue for the Gulf Coast is Storm Surge…. and then how far out the Surge impact extends…. case in point Gustav and the 10′-11′ Surge in Pass Christian MS… and then how far out the wind field extends… (we actually had some wind damage in our area to new construction with 60 mph gusts
Not only does Ike pose a severe Storm Surge threat to Galveston -East Texas, but judging by the surge potential indicated on “weather underground” parts of NOLA look “iffy” as they indicate a small area with a potential 9′-12′ surge… wonder if they have closed the gates??
Accurate Storm Surge prediction goes well beyond simplistic citation of Saffir -Simpson scale… but in reality is far more important to those living on the Gulf Coast…
And .. accurate Storm Surge prediction goes beyond simplistic SLOSH Modeling, MEOWS data,and bits of data from historical events.. That having been said, is there any chance “you all” can devote some of your enormous talent to present Surge data for next season?
Great Website!!! I have searched forever to find a good website for storms. I have finally quit since finding this one. GOOD JOB!!!
Hi guys. At the risk of sounding repetitive: great website. I’ve visited it almost every day since discovering it through reddit. (Florida native and resident for 25 years, and now I live in Texas where Ike may hit…)
My big question is one raised by critter42 and donnie above: Can you overlay the storm tracks? I’d love to be able to overlay Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne just to see the chaos I lived through in 2004. For old time’s sake! And I’m sure it would be useful for all sorts of scientific stuff.
Is there a possiblity that IKE could stall and then turn north earlier than expected?
What a great site. I was working in Houston on my way to Angola, West Africa on Friday. Passed this on to the guys that were coming home from Angola and told them to check the wind speed at the time of thier Friday arrival in Houston! Not pretty! I was supposed to be getting on the same plane back to Angola. Decided to get on a plane for Mississippi instead!!! Keep up the good work. I will donate.
This is definitely the best-looking weather website I have seen and is chock full of data. I have never seen weather bouy data overlays anywhere else, for instance.
I live in Savannah, GA and have been referring to it a lot lately. Thanks!
We have the ultimate weather forecaster (Steve Brown) in San Antonio, Tx. between him and stormpulse there is no need for noaa or mws. I would however like to see an option to toggle the individual models on & off and hi’s & low’s, iso bars, jet streams and mositure vapors. not asking for much huh? Just love this site best in Texas, aw hell anywhere! keep up the G R E A T work!! gotta go now IKE is knocking.
Excellent site! Something to consider though, when I print, the shadow of the probability cone becomes solid on the printout and obscures all the map elements except the track.
Thank you for the updated information. This is a great source so we can follow the status of the weather in League City, TX.
I found your website on The Burning Reel. A member posted that it was one of two that actually was true to weather. We like to keep an eye on all the big storms (little ones ,too) as you never know what might affect you. CHARLEY and ISABEL hit our area pretty hard and at the time there was no real info that I could find except “standard”. We don’t get many effects Ashland,Va. ,but still like to keep informed. Thanks for all you do . Jamnstv
Awesome site! What would it take to get this on a windows mobile platform (pda phones) for when were on the go and t.v. is not an option?
I noticed that Ike’s speed seemed to slow as it made landfall and has accelerated as it goes north. Is this typical olf all tropical storms that come ashore?
Is this due to the jet stream dragging them along?
It would be nice if you could toggle off and on a track of the jet stream on the map.
I am really enjoying you site, thank you.
wOw this is great beats a dozen Amateur Radio
Operators in the 40s with only a barometer to
forcast the path up and down the coast of Florida
wher she would come ashore, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
Great site!!! I have probably overlooked it but I could not find a legend for the Huricane tracking models. Every thing else is wonderful
[...] Welcome, and a review of features [...]
We were referred to your site by an enthusiastic supporter of yours, BanditMaker. We appreciate what you have created and applaud you for the excellent site you have created. If you respond to the creative suggestions in these comments, I can assure you that your site will stand head above all the existing weather sites presently on the internet.
[...] Stormpulse - If you’re into storm watching and tracking hurricanes, this is one of the best interactive sites on the web, you can find most of the same information from the National Weather Service. However, Stormpulse presents it in a way that is easier to interpret and more interesting to use. You can map a storm track, access satellite information, read about the storm’s life cycle, grab info from Wikipedia, view hurricane photos posted on flickr and much more. For a detailed guide check review of features. [...]
Hello, How can I get you delivered in my amail account please? I am not very good with computers but I think what you have done here is outstanding. Thanks much! Patricia
Can I get on your mailing list please? Thanks very much. Patricia
Is there any site that will translate the date to the day of the week? E.G.:Both my wife and I were kids during the New England hurricane of 1938 (yes we’re that old), and remember we were not in school that day, but what day was it? The date was Sept. 21, 1938. It may seem trivial, but there are other historical dates that the day of the week seems important and interesting.
Why only atlantic, why not a Pacific?
Hey, great site…!!!
My site is a band site, but becuase we live in a hurricane prone zone, I made a Storm Watch page, and I would be greatful if I could place your map on that storm page to keep the people on my island updated. I live on St.Maarten, were gonna get it head on so, Would love to get this on my page. Thanks
I love your site—could you explain to a novice
about water vapour? What is it supposed to be telling me?
I find the site amazing, and informative and with family and friends in the Carribbean on work visas, it helps me to know and to keep them informed.
Great work!
I love this site and use it whenever there is activity that affects my business - I work in the tourist trade and have thousands of customers in the Caribbean at any given point in the season. I have a responsibility to keep customers safe or evacuate them back to the U.K. It would be really great if you could put tourist destinations on your maps - for instance now, with Paloma, it would be useful to show Cayo Coco and Holguin. Is that possible?