Hurricanes! Data!

Hurricanes are on my mind for two reasons today: First, there is a tropical storm moving over my research project in Revillagigedo Islands off the western coast of Mexico, and second, I am preparing for a disaster data visualization class that I plan to teach in the winter term using the Price Science Commons Visualization Lab.  I plan to use data from NOAA in this class and will show off one of their databases in the process.  However, to get that data, the folks from NOAA need to collect it, and one of these ways is with this specially outfitted P3-Orion aircraft.  I had a chance to go on board one a few years ago to tour its innards.  Unfortunately, it was on the ground the whole time, but it was still cool to see the onboard instruments for recording the meteorological data.  At the time of my visit, this plane named after the Muppet, Miss Piggy, had flown through the heart of 68 hurricanes including at least five that I had personally experienced. The fourth from the last on its list was Hurricane Isabel, a hurricane that left my house and neighborhood without power for eleven days.

So where do these data go and how can you access it?  Well here is the lowdown – NOAA has a database that covers North American hurricanes over at least a 50 year period.  Do you need to know the path of Irma, the intensity of Floyd, how many hurricanes have crossed Puerto Rico in the 30 years? Well here is the database:  https://coast.noaa.gov/hurricanes/

Finally, here is that P3 Orion’s score sheet: