Over the years, we’ve shown you a variety of great ways to use Google Earth to track hurricanes. While much of that data comes from weather satellites, some of it comes from “hurricane hunters” that fly into the storms to pick up detailed conditions that can be used to help predict the path of the storm.
Morgan Palmer has written an excellent blog post to show you how to track the planes that are collecting data from these storms. Tropical Storm Debby is currently drenching the gulf coast of the US and the planes have already made a number of trips into the storm.
To get started quickly, simply visit the Live Recon page on TropicalAtlantic.com and click the “Live Recon Data in Google Earth” link. That will load a KMZ file onto your computer, from which you can view the current and recent data. To make the experience even better, enable parts of the [Weather] layer (particularly the clouds) so you can get a more detailed look at what they’re flying into.
For details on how to use the file, be sure to check out the full post on Morgan’s site.
About Mickey Mellen
Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.
question.
how often is this data updated?