Sailors are very aware of hurricane season as none of us want to be caught out in the ocean during one. I've personally been caught in two, both in the Pacific. They are not fun. Unfortunately I have a morbid fascination with hurricanes now and want to know how they are developing out in our oceans.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or US weather service has a great site to watch as storms form and strengthen. There are 3 tabs on the page that show the Central Pacific, Eastern Pacific, and Atlantic. When a storm first begins to form it is marked with a yellow "X". Hovering your mouse over the X gives you important information about the storm such as intensity and probability of becoming more severe. As it grows in strength, the X goes from yellow to orange to red. Then it progresses through depression, storm, and hurricane icons.
The beginning of hurricane season is in June but is actually very boring and so I didn't start watching the site until July. Even then there is not much going on. The real action begins in August and so I have the site up all day. I watched as Dora went from a probable storm up through a hurricane. I took particular interest because it started where the sailor Donald Lawson got into trouble. The Mexican Coast Guard kept talking about how weather contributed to hampering the search for the missing sailor. Being able to watch the storms build really underscored the difficulty experienced.
Hurricane Katrina happened towards the end of August. Then hurricanes Fiona and Ian that happened last year formed in the middle and end of September. I hope we have a very boring hurricane season this year but now is the time to start watching.
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