Hurricane Survival Guide

May Save Your Life When Weather Reports Fail

This eBook edition begins with hurricane basics and teaches you how to forecast wind direction and strength as well as track the eye of the storm.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction .........................................................................................................Page 4

Section 1:    Hurricane Basics ...............................................................................Page 6

Section 2:    Functions of Hurricane Finder Chart ...............................................Page 10

Section 3:    Hurricane Finder Chart as a Plotting Sheet ....................................Page 11

Section 4:    Finding and Tracking the Hurricane’s Eye .......................................Page 13

Section 5:    Tracking a Hurricane with Hurricane Tracking Charts .....................Page 17

Section 6:    Using Hurricane Finder Chart to Diagram A Hurricane ....................Page 21

Section 7:    Weather Forecasts ........................................................................Page 23

Section 8:    Forecasting Wind Direction and Strength .......................................Page 26
                   With Hurricane Finder Chart

Section 9:    Placing Your Position on Hurricane Finder Chart ............................Page 32
                    Painting a Picture of the Hurricane

Section 10:  Latitude and Longitude ..................................................................Page 36

Section 11:  Latitude Designation North and South Of the Equator ..................Page 37

Section 12: Longitude Designation East and West Of the Prime Meridian .........Page 38

Section13:   Hurricane Tracking Chart Distance Scale ........................................Page 42

Section 14:  Plotting Forecasted Hurricane Positions .........................................Page 43
                   On Hurricane Tracking Charts

Section 15:  Wind Speed and Direction at Your Position ....................................Page 45
                    Painting a Picture of the Storm on Hurricane Tracking Charts

Section 16: Using Hurricane Tracking Charts to Diagram a Hurricane ................Page 49

Section 17:  Predicting Storm Surge Flooding ....................................................Page 52

Section 18:  Practical Test Answers and Discussion ...........................................Page 58

Section 19:  Afterward .......................................................................................Page 67

INTRODUCTION

Global Climate Change may be affecting weather patterns and severity of storms. Spring of 2008 may prove to be one of the worst tornado seasons in the history of America’s heartland. Hurricane season begins June first in the northern hemisphere and is predicted to be an active one. The story of Tropical Cyclone Nargis continues to be played out in Myanmar in the Eastern Hemisphere.  In this seemingly changed world, civilization can be thrust back into a new Stone Age in the blink of an eye without the protection of technology. 

Electricity goes off, towers fall and suddenly you’re in the dark with no one to rely on but yourself. The more complicated a system the more likely it will fail and a resourceful society must be able to cope without.

This project began several years ago out of a quest to better understand hurricanes. In early morning October 20, 2005 I found myself gazing toward the mountains surrounding my little dock on the Rio Dulce (Sweet River) in Guatemala while Hurricane Wilma raged in the Caribbean with the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in a hurricane. I remember thinking how great it would be if I had a detailed picture of specific conditions described in the weather report I had just received over single sideband radio; how much wind and from what direction would it come.

NEREIS ON THE RIO

Mother Nature may be changing the rules but the geometry of cyclonic storms remains the same. This handbook will teach you how to track hurricanes in seconds using only your senses and diagram them before disaster strikes, making a picture of weather conditions expected at your front door days before the event. As lights go out you will have a plan to save your family and property, when expensive electronic gadgets are useful only as paperweights to hold down your pictures of the storm.

After Wilma went north to devastate other parts of the world I thought about diagramming and tracking hurricanes, which resulted in HURRICANE FINDER. Now almost three years later we’ve created www.globalweathersolutions.com and this Hurricane Survival Guide to spread the word even further, right to your front door.

TROPICAL CYCLONE TRACKS

Whether you call these rotating storms hurricanes, cyclones, or typhoons, different names similar phenomena, this HURRICANE SURVIVAL GUIDE may save your life when electronics fail.

I’ve lived aboard my sailboat NEREIS for almost two decades and fully half that time has been spent dodging tropical storms, searching for answers to the what ifs. Hurricane Survival Guide answers many of those questions. I hope it works as well for you as it has for me.

FUNCTIONS OF HURRICANE FINDER CHART

HURRICANE FINDER CHART can be used for two purposes.  It is used as a plotting sheet to estimate the track of a hurricane relative to your location and using a detailed weather forecast it diagrams a hurricane showing strengths and directions of winds at any location on the chart, creating a picture of predicted conditions at your front door.

HURRICANE FINDER CHART uses notions on circular motion to find the direction of the hurricane’s eye from where you are standing in seconds using only your senses, allowing you to track the storm without any help from a weather forecast. Civilization’s electronic magic always fails eventually during a storm and if you are isolated from television, radio or the Internet you can use this simple method to track their movement.

You can also draw a picture of the storm with HURRICANE FINDER CHART showing wind’s strengths and directions at any location predicted to be affected days in advance.  Using this information you can create an evacuation plan, decide if your home or escape route may be flooded, where you should take your boat, how to tie it up, where to place your anchors, what tree to tie to, where to park your car, which windows to board up, where to store your children’s swing set; in short how to best protect your family and property.  Then when the sky darkens and winds begin to howl you will have a written plan of action, even as the lights go out.

HAVE A PLAN
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

See the Hurricane Finder Chart in action at John's Musings:

Bermuda Meet Bertha 4 Days From Now.

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