A new app and Web site may make it easier to predict storm surges
Researchers have had a notoriously difficult time predicting how much flooding a given area will experience in the wake of a storm. Now a team led by researchers at Western Carolina University has developed a Web site and smartphone app that may help.
The scientists gathered storm-surge data going back 65 years at more than 3,400 sites along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and are making it available just in time for the June 1 start of the Atlantic hurricane season (see http://stormsurge.wcu.edu). Users can enter a zip code and view a map that shows all high-water measurements made in that area.
Also shown are the paths of the hurricanes that caused those floods, along with other aspects that most likely influenced storm-surge height, including wind speed and barometric pressure.
via Scientific American – Sid Perkins
The Latest Streaming News: Storm Surges updated minute-by-minute