Every year the hurricane season gets a few upgrades. Sometimes there are new products that are released, and some years products that already exist get upgrades. This only verifies that meteorology is a constantly evolving field and that all of us, meteorologists, must continue learning to keep up with the changes. This year was no exception. Let’s see what changed.

You probably have noticed that in the past on our tropical updates, we would highlight storm formation within the next 5 days, but this changed this year to “within 7 days”, this is because the National Hurricane Center has officially increased its outlook periods.

Usually, when we discuss areas of possible formation, we highlight areas where there might not even be anything there yet. We are looking at an area in the future where there might be something. Think about when you are switching lanes, you are looking at your side view mirror, and if conditions are right (meaning no cars) you switch. Similarly, in these areas is where weather conditions might turn favorable for storm development.

Once a wave or disturbance is in the area, the possibility of storm formation starts to grow. We can highlight these areas in two ways, where a storm might develop within the next 2 days or 7 days. The 7-day lead time was extended from the 5-day lead time used in previous years.

This will allow the public to have more time to prepare, and the official entities to label an invest area, or storm sooner rather than later.

The official potential storm surge flooding map, which is released by the National Hurricane Center, highlights the areas where inundation from storm surge could occur and the heights the water could reach, which will now be available for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

These maps are crucial to the coastal population as it takes into account the flooding due to the winds pounding water onto the coast (storm surge), astronomical tides, land elevation, track uncertainties, landfall location, the intensity of the storm, forward speed, and the storm’s size. Water is the number one killer in tropical cyclones. These maps will surely save lives.