Free tools & data to predict hurricanes

Four weeks ago I blogged here about the availability of open data, posting it on the open web and its potential social impact. Two weeks ago I blogged here too about tracking three hurricanes in the Caribbean via the brilliant but closed earth.nullschool.net. In between I compared & contrasted open & closed regimes on my Medium channel... and that 2½ yrs after a previous blog here on same!

Trio of Caribbean Hurricanes early Sept 2017

Evolution of Hurricanes Katia, Irma and José, and of Tropical Storm 57. Note how:

• Katia developed late over Gulf of Mexico & stops shortly after head-on landfall
• Irma is the strongest having developed over warmer S Atlantic then Caribbean
• weakens to Category 3 on first Florida Keys landfall
• strengthens again over western Gulf of Mexico 
• immediately weakens at second Florida Coast landfall
• still Cat2 (not shown) then finally Cat1 before degrading
• José stays strong over water, strengthens briefly to Cat4-5 then swerves to W Atlantic
• Tropical Storm 57 never materialised into a possible and feared hurricane three-punch

Emergency response maps as easy as 1-2-3

Update 5: read here my  new occupation inspired by this 18 months later
Update 4: for a predictive app using Esri & Alexa, see this example in Maryland
Update 3: presented at European Petroleum GIS Conference in London, 2 Nov 2017
Update 2: Medium professional channel posting on Open Data issues raised here
Update 1: Youtube of  freely available data show flood spread from 27 to 30 August

Crowdsourcing for disaster response