MikeC
Admin
Reged:
Posts: 4644
Loc: Orlando, FL
|
|
This year mark's flhurricane.com's 30th year of tracking storms in the Atlantic.
Flhurricane.com was born out of a passion for meteorology and a desire to provide accessible, hype-free hurricane information as much as possible. Founded in 1995 from the outdoor sportsman bbs during a relatively active year. It started out very simple. Mainly there wasn't much hurricane info in the early days of the internet and we started out being focused on central Florida (And still are) but early on we decided to stick to just the Atlantic basic.
In 1995 the internet as we know it was still very young. There were a few usenet newsgroups and gopher services with advisories. Snonut, and the ATWC (from now employee Eric Blake), was about it, along with places like hurricane city that popped up shortly after. In 1996-1996 the actual flhurricane.com name began from Central Florida Hurricane Center. In 1999, it added more community features to fill a gap in the mid-1990s when detailed, community-driven hurricane resources were scarce. Unlike mainstream weather outlets, Flhurricane.com focused on delivering raw data, model outputs, and unfiltered discussions, with a particular emphasis on Florida, which faces more hurricane impacts than any other U.S. state.
WE wanted to break down advisories and discuss systems not driving for hype, click bait, or political reasons and focus on probabilities, without concern as to "clicks" driving sensationalism.
In its infancy, the site offered basic storm tracking tools, satellite imagery links, and a forum for weather enthusiasts to share insights. The internet was still young, and Flhurricane.com leveraged early web technologies to provide mostly articles allowing for commentary. We also built a database (that is still growing) of storms and advisories, as well as articles with the intent to archive them and keep them around.
2004-2005 was the "peak" of site activity mainly driven by active Florida hurricane years leading toward in 2005. SInce then the activity has leveled off, but the overall goal stayed the course. My current work keeps me from actively working on the site as much as I would like, but with assistance from others, it keeps going on the base goal of keeping information short and to the point. Although not always perfect, we try to keep the hype down and focus on what's going on. Not over or under emphasizing systems, and calling out areas that need to watch out.
If you are new or a long time viewer, thank you. We'll continue on as long as we can. And as always, this just is a supplement, please use the word of the National Hurricane Center for final decisions.
May 15th Tropical Weather outlooks began again, and nothing is on the radar for the preseason so far. The East Pacific may see something before the end of the month, but the Atlantic is looking pretty quiet in May so far.
Names for this year:
Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dexter, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Imelda, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van, Wendy
Dexter is the only new name on this list as it replaced 2019's Hurricane Dorian (Which devastated parts of the Bahamas, particularly Abaco island and Grand Bahama) as a category 5, turning north just east of Florida and landfalling on the outer banks of North Carolina much weaker.
|
Psyber
Storm Tracker
Reged:
Posts: 239
Loc: Ontario, Canada
|
|
Quote:
This is the 30th year doing this..
Open until June 1st, 2025
My guess for this year was 19/10/3
Sorry for the long addition to your post, Mike.
Has it been THAT long already this year? I still remember how, as we all started watching, the levees began to break in . But it was impossible, right? That many things couldn't fail! They'd turn up every single pump, get some excavators and patch up the broken levees. Just turn everything up to 10 out of 10, and in a couple of weeks, everything will repair itself. I didn't understand what those horrified eyes meant.
And then it sunk in and I felt the helpless dread at how N/O was going to fill all the way up like a bathtub with 38C water. People being helpless and men having to wade through water that was filled with snakes with their pregnant wives and small children on pieces of plywood so that they could manage to get some food (and booze) from any stores that were still open.
Okay. Now, something crucial had just happened: without anything, without 20-30 feet of what we all now know as storm surge. Although we may not have known as well before, (Or it wasn't respected or understood at the time of being so deadly). Places like Gulfport, Mississippi, had essentially disappeared from the map to a degree that they still haven't fully recovered. Just flat concrete pads that had houses on them are still just the pads if the property is too close to the coast.
However, I like to think that we help people who need assistance...from helping someone find a safe Motel 8 all the way to guiding them to another place more suitable for them, such as a shelter or kitchen to help the needy. Perhaps save people's lives with some of our forecasts by offering them alternatives to standing in the wrong place versus moving to safer and higher ground, or perhaps helping people with dead cellphones help get them charged.. I remember people who were so panicked, who couldn't even think about where to go, versus just sitting down in the mud.
--------------------
The safest way to deal with a potential Hurricane hitting you...is to leave and just not be there at all.
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
