#Puerto rico hurricane aftermath 2017 upgrade

And that requires understanding how dangers from hurricanes are changing as the Earth heats up. Local officials and residents in hurricane-prone places need to think about the growing threats from hurricanes long before a storm is barreling toward their homes. 'My sense is that it will definitely help on the spot to make very quick decisions,' says Ingrid Padilla, a hydrologist at the University of Puerto Rico.īut, Padilla emphasizes, last-minute preparations such as evacuation orders only go so far.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center have upgraded storm surge warning tools this year so they can provide real-time surge forecasts to residents of Puerto Rico and the U.S. NOAA This map is an example of a potential storm surge warning map for Puerto Rico. Virgin Islands will get real-time storm surge forecasts when a storm is headed their way. This is also the first year that people in Puerto Rico and the U.S. That will give people more time to evacuate, and could save lives. Now, they've extended that lead time to 3 days, says Cody Fritz, the head of the storm surge unit at the National Hurricane Center. Up until now, forecasters could predict how high storm surge would be about 2 days before a storm hit land. Storm surge – the wall of water that a hurricane pushes onto land – is the most deadly hurricane hazard, and it drives evacuation orders before a storm.

#Puerto rico hurricane aftermath 2017 upgrade

This year, the National Hurricane Center is rolling out a major upgrade to the computer model it uses to predict hurricane storm surge. They are responsible for warning people about how large a storm is, who is in its path and what dangers it poses. So, as the 2023 hurricane season gets underway, NPR spoke with the scientists at the National Hurricane Center who provide crucial public information about hurricanes. The cost of damage from hurricanes has skyrocketed, overwhelming emergency agencies, insurance companies and household budgets, displacing entire neighborhoods and killing people. A hotter Earth makes storms more likely to get big and dangerous. The United States is feeling the effects of climate-driven storms. This year's storms will arrive as millions of people are still recovering from years of back-to-back hurricane devastation, from Texas all the way to the Northeast, and from the Caribbean to West Virginia. The Atlantic hurricane season begins today.