How to Track Typhoons
Typhoon tracking used to be a matter of life and death for people living along the Pacific ocean in both the tropics and sub-tropics. However, modern communications have, for the most part, relegated typhoon tracing to hobby status. Tracking typhoons is not difficult, and the advent of the World Wide Web has made typhoon tracking even easier.
Instructions
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1
Locate the typhoon you want to track. Typhoons are located in the west Pacific ocean and are tracked by many web sites. Specific storms are often listed by name.
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2
Locate the tabular data for the typhoon. This data is offered by most sites and is in the form of a table, similar to a spreadsheet.
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3
Locate the graphical representation of the individual typhoon track.
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4
Plot the progress of the typhoon on your map. If you are using the tabular data, put a dot at the latitude and longitude where the typhoon was first tracked. Place a second dot at the next data point. Connect the two dots using your ruler.
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5
Continue step 4 until you have plotted all of the typhoon's data points to create your typhoon track. If desired, add intensity data next to the points to keep track of information about the typhoon.
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Tips & Warnings
There are a number of sites that offer information about typhoons in the Pacific. The University of Hawaii's is a good example.
Typhoon data is generally two to 12 hours behind on some tracking centers. Do not use your tracking map for decisions involving safety.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Photo: Fred Green, stock.xchng
Comments
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Anonymous
Sep 26, 2011
What about if you're in the middle of nowhere where there's no internet, TV or radio. How do you track a typhoon, much more know if typhoon's heading your way? My idea are these: 1. Always carry a barometer with you. If there's a rapid drop in barometric pressure (more than 3.5 hPa ) typhoon is within your vicinity. 2. Face the wind and the eye of the typhoon is towards your right if you're in the Northern hemisphere (left if you're in the southern hemisphere) - Bouy's Ballot Law. 3. If the wind continue to get stronger and doesn't change direction, the typhoon eye is heading your way. If the wind direction swings to your left, the eye is passing North of you location. If it swings to your right, its passing South of your location. 4. If you see scattered, low-laying, scary black clouds, you only 4 hours to take shelter. Hope I contributed something.
