NOAA Improves Hurricane Forecast Technology
Monday, October 24, 2011
By: Robin Sussingham

October 24, 2011 | WMFE - Hurricane season continues through the end of November but researchers are already working on ways to improve storm forecasting for next year.

Researchers with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration say they've gotten much better at predicting the path of a hurricane. They can now accurately predict where a hurricane will come ashore as much as 48 hours before landfall.
But there's been very little progress in predicting the intensity of a storm.
 
Shirley Murillo is a hurricane research meteorologist with the NOAA.
Murillo said she has great hopes for the new Doppler radar scanners mounted on the tails of the P3 aircraft used in hurricane tracking.

"It sort of provides a CAT scan of the storm.” Murillo said. “It gives us the wind structure which is important in how the storm is changing and evolving and therefore giving us a hint of the intensity of the storm."

Murillo said the information will also make it back to local forecasters more quickly. She said the Doppler radar data will be sent in real time from the hurricane planes to forecasters on the ground.