Author: HURREVAC Support

The recent change from daylight saving time to standard time means that products from the National Hurricane Center and other forecast agencies are available one hour earlier. Users tracking Tropical Storm Nicole from the Eastern Time Zone should get these changes automatically in HURREVAC. Regular advisory packages (complete with new forecast tracks and discussions) are now issued at 4 a.m., 10 a.m., 4 p.m., and 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. (In Atlantic Standard Time: 5 a.m., 11 a.m., 5 p.m. and 11 p.m.) Intermediate advisories are issued at 1 a.m., 7 a.m., 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. EST while watches and warnings are in effect. (Or 2 a.m., 8 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. AST) Tropical Weather Outlooks are issued at 1 a.m., 7 a.m., 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. EST. By default, HURREVAC’s time display matches the system setting of your computer or device. There is no need to change any HURREVAC settings to account for the end of daylight saving time unless you manually set a custom time zone (UTC offset) in User Preferences. Additional reminder unrelated to the time change:The Potential Storm Surge Flooding layer requires more processing time by the NHC and may be issued at least one hour after the valid time of the regular advisory. If you check HURREVAC immediately after a new advisory issuance, (for example, right at 4 p.m.) the Potential Storm Surge Flooding layer will show a message that it does not exist. Check back one to two hours later. The surge layer from the previous regular advisory may still be viewed, but always refer to the legend to avoid discrepancies. If you have additional questions or encounter an issue, write to support@hurrevac.com for assistance.

HURREVAC’s Track and Swath Options interface has been redesigned to give users more choices for how to display storm tracks and forecasts. The existing capabilities are unchanged. The most significant new feature is the ability to plot Previous Forecast Tracks for either the last 3 advisories or the last 6 advisories (not including intermediate advisories). This lets users see trends in a storm’s track forecast over the past 24 to 36 hours with minimal clicking. Once the setting is turned on, the color-coded previous forecast tracks are automatically plotted for any actively displayed storm and advisory. This feature replaces the need to select individual advisory points to show the trend in a storm’s previous forecast tracks. But creating a custom or manual display in that manner is still possible. Other notable changes include the following: Actual Track Ahead settings are clarified Actual Track Behind (Past Track) has the added option to be plotted as a simple track line only Forecast Track also has a new option to be shown for official forecast positions only, which hides the hourly plot points Labels for Saffir-Simpson Category are no longer shown as “Cat 0” for track or forecast points that are not of hurricane strength The Save these preferences for future sessions button is more prominent