When facing a major hurricane, any additional information on the path or strength of the impending storm can make a huge difference in preparedness efforts and effectiveness. During a recent meeting of the World Meteorological Organization’s Hurricane Committee, several such potential tools and technologies for helping to predict behaviors around major storms were both presented and discussed, according to Reuters. One particular item of interest was the tropical cyclone monitoring system, which is expected to help identify storms before they fully develop. Of these systems, including ones used last year in advance of Hurricane Nate, Kenneth Graham, chair of the recent WMO meeting, noted “It gave our emergency services and first responders almost a whole extra day to prepare for the surge, the rain and the wind.” Focus was also given to the potential for tying together physical modeling of hurricanes with behavioral sciences that assess human behavior.
The meeting wasn’t only about prediction, however. It also offered discussions of the need for increased public awareness of all the risks surrounding a hurricane. Said Graham, while noting water is the cause of about 90 per cent of hurricane-related deaths, “Most people immediately think of wind when they visualise a hurricane. But the reality is multiple hazards — wind, heavy rain and storm surge.”
Source:
https://news.trust.org/item/20180413181015-i7fmg
