Q&A of the Day – About Dorian the National Hurricane Center’s new updates
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
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Today’s entry...
I don’t understand the difference between the hourly Dorian updates and the regular ones.
Bottom Line: The National Hurricane Center added a new wrinkle this year that many of us noticed while clinging to new hourly updates in the hope of being spared the wrath of Dorian. This is the third type of update provided to us by the National Hurricane Center and it can be hard to understand the difference between the updates without a bit of clarification – so here goes.
The hourly update: Offered up when advisories are in place. The Hurricane Center updates location, how the storm is moving (if it is – I'm looking at you evil Dorian) and maximum sustained speed.
The intermediate update: These are the ones offered up at 8 o’clock and 2 o’clock between the full advisories. In addition to the hourly updated information, a public advisory (short forecast discussion) is also updated and map location is provided.
The full update:These are the comprehensive advisories issued at 5 o’clock and 1 o’clock that provide everything in the hourly and intermediate updates plus complete forecast discussion and updated forecast map with adjustments to the cone as/if needed.
Some of the other recent additions have been the inclusions of wind speed history, wind speed probabilities and the arrival of winds information.As the National Hurricane Center has more technology in use and more information than ever, they’re being more transparent with it during times of adversity. In general, that’s a good thing –if we don’t try to read more into some of it than we should. The biggest mistake any of us can make is seeing what we want to see with the information, rather than what’s presented to us. Meteorology has always been an inexact science.