Edited and updated by Carol Hopper Brill & Chris Petrone.
Photo courtesy of NOAA.
Coastal Storm Data Activity #2: Thar She Blows!
Go to Oceanweather, Inc. This site uses satellites to relay real-time meteorological data collected from different sources: buoys, ships and coastal stations.
- On the left, click on North Atlantic, "Southern Region," then
- Click the "Marine Observations" icon at the top of the page, This is a real time image of today's weather systems, annotated with various symbols.
The "flags" scattered around the map are wind barbs that indicate wind velocity and direction. Red flags represent data collected by weather buoys, blue indicates information collected by ships.
Data Activity & Discussion: Reading Wind Barbs
- Find wind barbs indicating wind speeds of: 0-5 kt; 10-20 kt; 30-40 kt, 50+ kt.
- What direction are winds blowing off the SE coast of the US (south of Cape Hatteras)?
- What direction are winds blowing off the NE coast of the US (north of Cape Cod)?
- Is there a pattern to the wind directions in the middle of the North Atlantic? How is this pattern related to ocean surface currents in the North Atlantic? Could this circulation pattern influence the path that hurricanes often follow?
Return to the Coastal Storms DATA mainpage.
Go to the next Coastal Storms DATA activity.
Go to the previous Coastal Storms DATA activity.
The Bridge is supported by the