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“You still have to be responsible,” Alexander said Friday. “Because it just takes one (hurricane) to mess things up. Or, even worse, if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Even seasons with fewer hurricanes can still pack a punch, he said. “Back in 1992, that was an extremely slow season, maybe three or five named storms,” Alexander said. “But that was the year Hurricane Andrew struck southern Florida. That was an extremely devastating hurricane. … Even if you have a low number of hurricanes, that doesn’t mean we can just sit back and say, ‘Well, we don’t have much to worry about.’” During National Hurricane Preparedness Week, which concluded Saturday, May 31st, NOAA offered bilingual public service announcements and tips at www.ready. gov/hurricanes and www.hurricanes. gov/prepare.
using a space-based observatory, as well as a monitoring instrument set to launch this season to the International Space Station. “This year, we’re going full-force into tropical cyclone research,” NASA meteorologist Scott Braun said in a statement Thursday. Braun is a principal investigator for the Global Hawk’s Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel mission, or HS3, which is overseen by the Earth System Science Pathfinder Program at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton. Gerry Bell, the lead hurricane forecaster at NOAA, said the Atlantic has seen above-normal seasons in 12 of the last 20 years. He said both the anticipated El Nino and projected near-average Atlantic ocean temperatures suggest light activity this year.
It also rolled out a new interactive mapping tool on its website that will enable users to check the storm surge threat in their coastal communities in advance of a specific event. According to NOAA, the map can be used when a hurricane or tropical storm watch is first issued, or about 48 hours before the expected onset of tropical stormforce winds. NOAA says it has improved its forecasting model by 10 percent over last year.
“You still have to be responsible” Lyle Alexander, Meteorologist, National Weather Service, Wakefield
To help in NOAA’s research and forecasting, unmanned Global Hawk aircraft will launch out of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore between Aug. 26 and Sept. 29, the peak of the hurricane season.
NOAA’s forecast last year, of course, didn’t pan out. Federal experts initially predicted an unusually busy season, but the Atlantic saw only 13 named storms, two Category 1 hurricanes, and no major ones.
This will be the third year for these flights to study the development of Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes. NASA will also study surface winds and storm formation
NOAA says it will issue an updated outlook in early August, just before the season peak for 2014. Dietrich can be reached by phone at 757-247-7892 or tdietrich@dailypress.com
Hurricane Storm Guide 2014 • An advertising supplement to the Daily Press — 9