Hampton University’s ‘Center of Excellence,’ Severe Storm Research Center is Forecasting Hurricane Dorian

HAMPTON, Va. (September 3, 2019) – As Hurricane Dorian begins its ascent northward toward the U.S. Tuesday morning, Hampton University and its scientists are ready and equipped with state-of-the-art storm watching technology that rivals most weather centers in the country. Hampton University’s NASA-funded five million dollar Direct Broadcast Antenna can gather real-time data for weather observations in Hampton Roads.

The antenna, which sits atop the Hampton Harbour Centre, is a satellite receiving system and provides satellite images and data within minutes after the satellite flies overhead.

Hampton University’s newly created Center of Excellence is currently forecasting Hurricane Dorian, which can be viewed here: http://cas.hamptonu.edu/~qi.zhang/Hurricane/Dorian/

The list of images on the link shows the time (in Universal Time, UTC, which is 4 hours ahead of EDT) that the forecast cycle was initiated. If you ‘click’ on the latest time shown in this list, then you will see the very latest forecasts for hourly intervals out to 18 hours.

There is another list of 18 Dates and Times for the 18 forecasts made with Hampton University’s model.  For example, 2019-09-04 05 indicates the forecast for tomorrow, September 4, 2019 at 05 UTC (i.e., 1 AM EDT tomorrow morning).

Also shown is Hampton University’s forecast hurricane track (‘Track.png’) for the next 18 hours compared to the National Hurricane Center (nhc.noaa.gov) Best Track Forecast, which is derived from operational US and European model predictions.  Hampton University’s forecast for the next 18 hours is along the current NHC best track forecast.  Hampton University updates the forecast every hour.

For more information about the link, please contact Dr. Bill Smith at Bill.l.smithsr@gmail.com or Dr. James Russell at James.Russell@hamptonu.edu.