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Tracking Hurricane Season online

As hurricane season continues, there are some vital Web resources available for tracking the storms, communicating safety information, and organizing relief efforts. On the meteorological front, NOAA and the National Hurricane Center are, of course, the official word on forecasts and they do a decent job with presentation of info. But for cool visuals alone, Stormpulse (pictured above) has been my “go to” storm tracking site. It has the right look and a great user interface. When it comes to relaying up-to-the-minute news on the storms, Twitter has been abuzz with non-stop hurricane news. ABC has an article about how the micro-blogging service was utilized during Gustav. In the public radio world, I thought Twitter was used very effectively by Mississippi Public Broadcasting to get storm warnings and information out in real time to their local audience‚ (example tweets‚ here and‚ here). You can keep track of the current Hurricane Ike chatter on Twitter here. And a tip of the hat to NPR’s Andy Carvin for the work he did in the days leading up to Gustav to create a Web clearinghouse for all Gustav related news, relief efforts and volunteer opportunities. The site has since been adapted to house all Hanna and Ike related information as well. Let me know if there are other sites you’re using for hurricane info and news.

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