BeaconHurricane allows you to track and view forecasts for tropical cyclones, including tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes, across the globe.
In this section, we'll discuss how to navigate and use BeaconHurricane.
Accessing BeaconHurricane
When you log in to Beacon, BeaconAlerts is the default page that displays when the product is launched.
To access BeaconHurricane, select the down arrow next the word Alerts in the header. This will provide a list of the other sub-products available. In this case, you will select Hurricane.
Selecting a Storm
BeaconHurricane provides global forecasts for tropical cyclones.
The Athenium Analytic's proprietary hurricane forecacst is updated eight (8) times per day.
Each forecast run is labeled with the date and timestamp (in UTC). The most recent forecast will listed first in the drop down menu.
Once you select a forecast run, BeaconHurricane will display all global storms that are active at that time.
To investigate a storm and access forecast tracks and other details, select the icon from the map or select the storm name from the list along the left side of the page.
Hurricane Track Forecasts
Once you have selected a storm, BeaconHurricane will display the Athenium Analytics proprietry hurricane forecast track on the map, along with other details on the storm's status and conditions.
Swath Forecasts
The "Swath Forecasts" tab in BeaconHurricane allows you to visualize the size and scope of the storm's wind and precipitation, over the storm's lifetime.
Swath forecasts are available for the proprietary Athenium Analytics forecast, as well as the GFS, ECMWF, and CMC models.
If you'd like to focus on one particular swath contour, you may select/de-select swath contours on the map legend. Simply select/de-select the color squares to add/remove swath contours from the visualization.
To navigate from Wind Speed Swaths to Precipitation Swaths, select the down arrow, located to the right of the label, to reveal the menu to select the swath type to visualize.
Please note that precipitation swath visualizations are not currently available for the Athenium Analytics forecast track.
Wind Probabilities
The "Wind Probabilites" tab in BeaconHurricane will display the chance of sustained wind speeds reaching at least tropical storm strength (39+ mph, 63+ kph) or hurricane strength (74+ mph, over the lifetime of the storm.
To navigate between Tropical Storm Wind Probabilities and Hurricane Wind Probabilities, select the down arrow, located to the right of the label, to reveal the menu to select the swath type to visualize.
Watches & Warnings
BeaconHurricane provides visualizations for storm-relevant active watches and warnings.
To view the active watches and warnings select the triangular icon at the bottom of the toolbar along the right side of the page.
BeaconHurricane will only display watches and warnings that are relevant to the selected storm. Additionally, there may be times when there are no active watches or warnings to display.
The watch and warning data is provided by the NOAA National Weather Service. Please note that the summary text for select watches or warnings may be truncated.
It is quite common for multiple watches and warnings to be in effect for the same location, and therefore they overlay one another. The ability to toggle on/off specific watches and warnings is a functionality unique to BeaconHurricane, empowering you to simplify the visual and focus on the watch/warning types that are important to you.
To toggle on/off specific watches and warnings, as shown below, simply select/de-select them using the Watches & Warnings legend.
Plotting Exposures
BeaconHurricane allows you to plot your insured properties to determine your exposure based on the hurricane forecast.
To plot your exposures, begin by selecting the EXPOSURES button along the bottom left of the page.
For additional details on visualizing your insured properties and locations on the map, see Plotting Exposures.
You may plot exposures by:
- Radius - plots all insured properties within a circle with a radius size of your choice (1-20 miles)
- Polygon - plots all insured properties within a polygon that you draw on the map
- Wind Speed Swath - plots all insured properties within a wind speed swath of your choice
To plot exposures based on the wind speed swath, select WIND SPEED SWATH.
A box will appear and prompt you to select the storm category you'd like to view.
Only relevant storm categories will appear in the drop down menu, therefore, if the storm is a Category 1 Hurricane, you will NOT be able to select Cat 2,3,4,5 from menu.
As shown below, if there are not any insured locations located within a particular wind speed swath, you will see a message stating "No Exposures Found."
0 Comments
Add your comment