ESS 112L – Spring 2015
Name: ________________________
Introduction to National Hurricane Center Products
For this exercise, you will be exploring the various products that are available
through the National Hurricane Center (NHC). In this case, you will be exploring
these products through the NHC’s archived data, which can be found at the
following site:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/
1) After navigating to the website listed above, select "Past Track Seasonal
Maps.” Under the Atlantic Basin Section, select “2004.” Paste a copy of the
image below.
a. Using this image, list the names of three names storms from the 2004
Atlantic Hurricane season and their maximum wind speeds.
b. On this image, what do the light purple-colored lines indicate?
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2) Under “Past Track Maps of U.S. Landfalling Major Hurricanes,” select the
2001 – 2010 timeframe and paste a copy of the image below.
a. How many major hurricanes made landfall between 2001 and 2010?
b. Which of these hurricanes was the most intense upon making landfall,
and what was its maximum intensity at landfall?
3) On the main NHC data archive page, please select “Tropical Cyclone
Monthly Summary Archive,” and select “2004.” Then select the month of
August for the Atlantic Ocean.
a. According to the summary, on what date did Hurricane Charley make
landfall on the southwest coast of Florida?
b. What was Hurricane Charley’s estimated maximum sustained wind
speed at the time of landfall?
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c. Shortly after making landfall, which towns / cities in southwestern
Florida were impacted by the eyewall?
4) On the main NHC data archive page, please select “Graphical Tropical
Weather Outlook,” and select “Atlantic.” Please paste a copy of the image in
the space below.
a. What date and time (in UTC) was this image from?
b. Using the color scale underneath the image, what were the potential
and percentage chance of cyclone development in the shaded area in
the Atlantic Ocean?
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5) For the following questions, please select any hurricane of your choice that
occurred in the Atlantic Ocean.
a. What is the name of the hurricane you have selected?
b. In what year did this hurricane occur?
c. Based on your previous answer, navigate to "Past Track Seasonal
Maps” and paste the image below from the year corresponding to your
hurricane.
d. Navigate to “Tropical Cyclone Monthly Summary Archive” and enter
the year and month corresponding to your hurricane. Using the
provided summary for your storm, in 3 – 4 sentences describe some of
the most important pieces of information that are provided.
(Suggestions for topics to discuss: date / time of landfall, peak wind
speed, wind speed at landfall, location of landfall, etc.)
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