Weather and Hurricane Links

Page updated May 2, 2008
Weather QuickLinks
The Best Weather and Hurricane Information

The Emergency Managers Weather Information Network (EMWIN) is the fastest way to get weather alerts. Listed below are methods of receiving EMWIN.
1. EMWIN data downlink from satellites is the best method.
2. Receiving radio rebroadcast of EMWIN data provided by volunteers is a good method but they are too few and do not cover most areas. It requires radio data decoders.
3. The Internet using automatic-push EMWIN software. It is a fair method and the cheapest but least reliable way. There are many places for connection failure from your ISP, telephone, and/or cable.

EMWIN software is excellent for getting weather text warnings within a minute of their official time-stamped releases. Selected text products can be set to pop-up or sound alarms while you do other things on your computer. The graphic files are low priority and thus are not rapidly updated, so it is better to manually-pull graphic files using an Internet browser. When first opening an EMWIN program it is recommended to check for weather text alerts sent either to your email address or to manually-pull weather text using an FTP plug-in or an Internet browser. This is because you can miss valid text alerts that are still in effect before the time you run the EMWIN program. Also recommended is storing the incoming data on a ram drive instead of constantly working the hard drive. The automatic-push EMWIN software should include alarms, the ability to save only certain information and filter options. The disadvantage to EMWIN software is it can be difficult to setup after first installing it. More information about the EMWIN is at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/emwin/index.htm and ftp://emwin:emwin@140.90.6.240/index.htm and http://www.crh.noaa.gov/emwin/.

Continue to EMWIN Part 2

NOAA Weather Radio is an excellent way to get weather alerts and it should be used in conjunction with using EMWIN.

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service is an extremely reliable and fast way to get weather alerts. What can happen in a wide area disaster is major power outages. Television and cable can go out. Telephones can become over loaded or go dead. Cell phone networks and the Internet can overload and become totally useless. The 911 system can fail. Police, fire, rescue and hospitals may become overworked and too busy with others and unable to help you. A satellite dish can completely loose signals from heavy rain, from being blown just slightly off bore-sight, or just damaged enough to cause no signal. There can be loss of all communications except for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service.

The Amateur Radio service and radio scanners should be a part of your survival tools.
http://www.amrad.org/skywarn.html to advance the state of the art in Amateur Radio's support of the National Weather Service's SkyWarn program
http://www.findu.com/cgi.html Find Amateur Radio Weather APRS Stations
http://www.wulfden.org/APRSQuery.shtml Search Amateur Radio Weather APRS Stations

Warnings for Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Other Hazards
NOAA Weather Radio is a fast source for comprehensive weather and emergency information.
One of the most important reasons to own a weather radio is the ability to receive up to the minute information on severe weather. If you are under a Warning it is best to leave the weather radio audio on to get non-alarm Weather Statements that can contain more important information than just Warnings! Also, the audio needs to be on because a storm can knock the weather radio station off the air. Most stations have a backup channel that covers the same county so you can switch to that weather radio channel. Check the local National Weather Service office's web site to find what channels to use.
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Notice the date and time! Missing and out-of-date data results in not showing the latest updates!
Text products indicate the expiration date and time (UTC time) about the third line from top along with the county zone numbers.
Warning Maps
http://140.90.113.200/ or http://www.weather.gov/ Better detail and faster updates if you click on map area
http://140.90.113.200/view/largemap.php or http://www.weather.gov/view/largemap.php
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/wwa/ Auto-Refresh 5 min. Watch, Warning, Advisory Maps
       http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/wwa/wwa.gif
       http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/wwa/warnsummary.html Auto-Refresh 5 min.
http://www.weather.gov/view/national.php?thumbs=on This will replace iwin.nws.noaa.gov
http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready-bin/getwarn.pl?product=Current+Watch+Boxes+Plotted+on+a+Map [shows only watches]
http://www.uswx.com/us/wx/ Auto-Refresh 10 min. Very Good! Needs faster reload/refresh
http://www.hamweather.net/cgi-bin/hw3/hw3.cgi?forecast=pass&pass=warningmap&s=us Good! Needs faster reload/refresh
http://www.wunderground.com/severe.asp/ Good! Needs faster reload/refresh Auto-Refresh 15 min.
http://www.stormdisplay.com/warnings.asp Auto-Refresh 5 min. javascript
http://www.met.tamu.edu/weather/warnings/ Auto-Refresh 5 min. Good! County maps but if using Netscape readme
http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/gifs/SEVERE.GIF
http://image.weather.com/images/maps/special/severe_us_720x486.jpg [overwrite us: cn ec nc ne nw sc se sw wc]
http://image.weather.com/images/maps/special/us_watch1_720x486.jpg
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Warnings (text only)
http://140.90.113.200/view/ or http://www.weather.gov/view/ iwin.nws.noaa.gov will be discontinued replaced by this link
http://weather.noaa.gov/ select State then select under Forecasts, watches and warnings
http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready/cmet.html at Text Products select Watches and Warnings
        http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready-bin/ldmwxa.pl?ldmwxproduct=Watches+and+Warnings enter 3-letter station ID or state ID preceded with @
http://kamala.cod.edu/svr/ Auto-Refresh 2 min. Very Good! Quick text list of warnings.
http://apollo.lsc.vsc.edu/weather/weather.html enter 3-letter station ID or @ state ID and Select Data NWS Warnings
http://www.met.tamu.edu/personnel/students/weather/weather_interface.html enter 3-letter station ID or @ state ID and select data category Other Data
http://www.met.fsu.edu/weather/text_weather/ select Bulletin type 'warnings ans watches' and enter Station '@fl' or with your 2-letter State ID
http://www.stormdisplay.com/current.asp Auto-Refresh 5 min.
http://www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/hw3/hw3.cgi?forecast=pass&pass=warningmap&s=us&size=640x480&key=1 Auto-Refresh 5 min.
http://twister.sbs.ohio-state.edu/main.php?pageloc=severe
http://www.atmos.albany.edu/cgi/quick.cgi?station=@fl&warn=yes Replace @fl with your 2-letter State ID
http://www.weather.brockport.edu/cgi-bin/warning?station=@fl&time=Latest Scroll down for latest. Replace with your 2-letter State ID
http://www.weather.brockport.edu/cgi-bin/warning?station=@fl&time=Today Clear&Reset for '=Today' at 0000 UTC
http://www.weather.brockport.edu/cgi-bin/warning?station=@fl&time=Yesterday Replace with your 2-letter State ID or 3-letter NWS ID
http://wwwagwx.ca.uky.edu/ldmdata/public/Alertwx.html Scroll to bottom and select State
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Raw directory and parsed file listing of combined products:
http://www.atmos.albany.edu/weather/data1/severe/?C=M;O=D Includes some hurricane data
http://wwwagwx.ca.uky.edu/ldmdata/severe/?C=M;O=D

Backup commercial radar
http://html.ibsys.com/sh/weather/radarsites.html

http://www.atmos.washington.edu/cgi-bin/latest.cgi?sfc includes isobars and plots
http://cheget.msrc.sunysb.edu/products/sfc/0_HrsAgo.gif includes plots
http://www.atmos.albany.edu/gopher-local/surface/us/00latest.gif includes plots
http://windfall.evsc.virginia.edu/~mcuser/webpage/radar/radpres.gif includes isobars and plots
http://www.comet.ucar.edu/dstreme/images/sfc_map.gif includes isobars and plots

Backup commercial radar
http://html.ibsys.com/sh/weather/radarsites.html

http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/radar/index_e.html Canada

Storm News
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also check government Office of Emergency Management

http://weather.yahoo.com/
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/digest.htm
http://www.weather.com/newscenter/
http://www.accuweather.com/news-center.asp
http://www.cnn.com/WEATHER/
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/shared/weather/ap/ap_headlines.html (requires cookies)
or http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/content/shared/weather/ap/ap_headlines.html (requires cookies)

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ and http://www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/

Storm Reports
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http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/ Auto-Refresh 5 min. SPC Tornado and Severe Thunderstorm Reports and Tornado Statistics
http://moe.met.fsu.edu/~acevans/reports/ SPC Local Storm Report Maps
http://kamala.cod.edu/spc/latest.nwus22.KWNS.html - http://vortex.plymouth.edu/cgi-bin/wwus60 - http://weather.cod.edu/digatmos/spc/
http://www.met.tamu.edu/weather/warnings/reports.html SPC text products and Local Storm Reports
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/nw/?C=M;O=D SPC text products and Local Storm Reports
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/DF.c5/DC.textf/DS.lsrnw/?C=M;O=D Local Storm Reports
http://www.weathermatrix.net/archive/spclog/date.html#end archived SPC Tornado and Severe Thunderstorm Reports
http://www.weather.gov/view/national.php?prod=PNS&sid=???
http://kamala.cod.edu/ click on State then click on Local Storm Reports
http://www.weathermatrix.net/archive/lsr/date.html#end archived Local Storm Reports
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/observations/storm_rpt/
http://www.weather.brockport.edu/cgi-bin/storm?station=@fl&time=Today Replace @fl with your 2-letter State ID or airport code
http://www.weather.brockport.edu/cgi-bin/storm?station=@fl&time=Yesterday Replace @fl with your 2-letter State ID or airport code

http://www.weatherwatchers.org/archive/stormreports/
or http://www.weathermatrix.org/archive/stormreports/
or http://www.weathermatrix.net/archive/stormreports/
or http://www.weathermatrix.com/archive/stormreports/
or http://www.cybervox.org/archive/stormreports/

http://image.weather.com/images/maps/special/svr_damage1_720x486.jpg
http://image.weather.com/images/maps/special/svr_damage2_720x486.jpg
http://image.weather.com/images/maps/special/svr_damage3_720x486.jpg
http://image.weather.com/images/maps/special/svr_damage4_720x486.jpg

Record Events
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http://www.weather.gov/view/national.php?prod=RER
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/sx/?C=M;O=D sxus??.????.rer.???.txt
http://twister.sbs.ohio-state.edu/public/record/?C=M;O=D
http://www.weathermatrix.net/archive/usrecords/date.html#end
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/records/ missing a few states
http://www.ocs.orst.edu/pub_ftp/weather/observations/records/US/ West US

http://image.weather.com/images/maps/special/record_event_1_720x486.jpg
http://image.weather.com/images/maps/special/record_event_2_720x486.jpg
http://image.weather.com/images/maps/special/record_hi_1_720x486.jpg
http://image.weather.com/images/maps/special/record_hi_2_720x486.jpg
http://image.weather.com/images/maps/special/record_los_1_720x486.jpg
http://image.weather.com/images/maps/special/record_los_2_720x486.jpg
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http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/cdus/prcp_temp_tables/ Past US Data Summary Files
http://www.cip.ogp.noaa.gov/ Climate Information Program
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ National Climatic Data Center
       http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/climatedata.html
              http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2004/perspectives.html replace 2004 with past year
              http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/stateclimatologists.html
              http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/climate/severeweather/extremes.html
                      http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwEvent~Storms
http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/

Storm - Flood - Surface Weather Analyses & Forecasts Maps
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http://weather.gov/forecasts/graphical/sectors/conus.php?element=Wx

http://kamala.cod.edu/HPC/
http://asp1.sbs.ohio-state.edu/text/station/KWNO/?C=N;O=A

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/monitoring.html Climate Monitoring

Travel Brief
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http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/selcit.shtml
http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/scs.html SELECTED CITIES WEATHER SUMMARY AND FORECASTS & NATIONAL TEMPERATURE EXTREMES
http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/tav.html TRAVELERS FORECAST TABLE
http://www.weather.gov/view/national.php?prodtype=tempprecip
http://www.weather.gov/view/national.php?prodtype=traveler
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/fp/fpus20.kwnh.scs.11.txt - http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/fp/fpus21.kwnh.scs.12.txt - http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/fp/fpus22.kwnh.scs.13.txt - http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/fp/fpus23.kwnh.scs.14.txt
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/fp/fpus10.kwnh.tav.10.txt - http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/fp/fpus12.kwnh.tav.12.txt - http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/fp/fpus13.kwnh.tav.13.txt

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/ab/abus23.kwbc.tpt.wrn.txt TEMPERATURE/WEATHER FOR WESTERN UNITED STATES
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/ab/abus24.kwbc.tpt.ern.txt TEMPERATURE/WEATHER FOR EASTERN UNITED STATES
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/ab/abus25.kwbc.tpt.crn.txt TEMPERATURE/WEATHER FOR CENTRAL UNITED STATES
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/ab/abna26.kwbc.tpt.nam.txt TEMPERATURE/WEATHER FOR INTERNATIONAL CITIES

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/ab/abcn01.kwbc.tpt.can.txt CANADIAN TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION TABLE
http://twister.sbs.ohio-state.edu/canada/?C=M;O=D
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/ab/abxx07.kwbc.tpt.lat.txt LATIN AMERICAN TEMP AND WEATHER TABLE
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/raw/ab/abxx06.kwbc.tpt.int.txt FOREIGN TEMPERATURE AND WEATHER TABLE

http://www.weather.com/activities/travel/
http://www.intellicast.com/Travel/
http://www.accuweather.com/us-city-list.asp

U.S. Analyses Graphics
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http://www.nowcoast.noaa.gov/ [requires javascript and java]

http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/sfc2.shtml or http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/sfctxt.html
Analysis Times 00Z 03Z 06Z 09Z 12Z 15Z 18Z 21Z posted about 2 hours later
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/satsfc.gif Analysis/Satellite Composite (N Amer/Pacific)
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/satsfcnps.gif Analysis/Satellite Composite (North America)
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/90fwbg.gif North America / With Surface Observations - small
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/newnamsfc.gif North America/ With Surface Observations - small
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/lrgnamsfcwbg.gif North America / With Surface Observations - large
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/namfntsfcwbg.gif North America / Without Surface Observations
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/QYAA00.tiff Fax Chart

       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/ussatsfc.gif Analysis/Satellite Composite (CONUS)
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/radsfcus.gif Analysis/Radar Composite (CONUS)
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/namussfcwbg.gif Continental U.S. (CONUS) / With Surface Observations
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/awc90f.gif Continental U.S. (CONUS) / With Surface Observations
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/bwsfc.gif United States (CONUS/color background)
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/usfntsfcwbg.gif Continental U.S. (CONUS) / Without Surface Observations
       or http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/loopimagesfcwbg.gif Continental U.S. (CONUS) / Without Surface Observations
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/sfcobs/small_latestsfc.gif Hourly Surface Observations over the Continental U.S. - small
       http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/sfcobs/large_latestsfc.gif Hourly Surface Observations over the Continental U.S. - large