Google to offer hurricane flood warnings

[HURAKAN]

Google to offer hurricane flood warnings

US citizens living in the hurricane danger zone may soon have access to a warning system courtesy of Google, it has been revealed.

Speaking to Reuters, Bill Read, the director of the National Hurricane Centre in the US, stated that there is a planned programme under which a Google application will be coupled with storm surge data to provide people with information concerning whether their home is threatened by a particular storm.

He commented: "People can plug in their address and see at what level they are at risk."

According to Mr Read, it is hoped that the service will available in time for the coming Atlantic hurricane season, which is due to start at the beginning of June and run until November.

Meteorologists use a computerised model that estimates the height of storm surges by taking into account a number of the storm's characteristics, such as its size, forward speed and wind strength.

Reportedly, the idea to make the information available to the public stemmed from the volume of calls local emergency managers and weather forecast offices receive concerning what the flooding will be like at people's houses.

Mr Read stated: "We're not going to know that off the top of our heads. So we can say 'go to our web site, go to such and such', and it is there."

There has been particular concern in the US over flooding after Hurricane Kartrina struck in 2005. During the storm, the New Orleans levee system failed and many people lost their lives and homes.

[hurricanetrack]

Why not just evacuate if told to do so and cut the second guessing of these fine people that are running the show at TPC? The more tools that are out there that allow people to try and make THEIR OWN decisions, the more people will stall, delay and second guess the forecasts. Besides, I would guess that a lot of the people who died b/c of Katrina's surge, whether in LA or MS, did not have access to the Internet in their homes. That's just a guess though.

[wxman57]

I'm not sure exactly what will be available on Google. The article title mentions surge warnings, but the article just suggests that general SLOSH data may be incorporated into Google.

Regardless, storm surge is highly-dependent on a number of variables, most of which are not known 2-3 days prior to landfall when evacuations need to take place. For example, we can't predict just where the center will make landfall very accurately (within 25-50 mile) more than about 24 hours in advance of the arrival of the center. And intensity forecasting is just barely more than an educated guess. Without knowing the precise point of landfall, hurricane intensity, and the extent of the wind field, any surge projection 2-3 days out is not very valuable. But such a web site could be useful for providing information about whether a specific location is in a surge zone.