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NOAA NOAA United States Department of Commerce

Tropical Cyclone Surface Wind Field


Updated 18 April 2008

Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Product Description
  3. Methodology
  4. Availability
  5. Examples
  6. Feedback and Comments

2. Product Description

This graphic illustrates the areas potentially being affected by the sustained winds of varying force. Tropical storm force winds are shown in orange and hurricane force winds are shown in red. The display is based on the wind radii contained in the latest Forecast/Advisory (indicated at the top of the figure). Users are reminded that the Forecast/Advisory wind radii represent the maximum possible extent of a given wind speed within particular quadrants around the tropical cyclone. As a result, not all locations falling within the orange or red shaded areas will be experiencing sustained tropical storm or hurricane force winds, respectively.

In addition to the wind field, this graphic shows an approximate representation of coastal areas under a hurricane warning (red), hurricane watch (pink), tropical storm warning (blue) and tropical storm watch (yellow). The white dot indicates the current position of the center of the tropical cyclone, and the dashed black line shows the history of the center of the tropical cyclone.

Next:  Methodology