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Posts Tagged ‘Irene’

Need To Find a Hackerspace In Africa? Check This Map

February 27th, 2012 02:47 admin View Comments

The Internet

pigrabbitbear writes “These days you can crowd-map just about anything, from Hurricane Irene to what you eat for breakfast, as long as you either have a phone or a basic internet hook-up. One of the largest and most used platforms for crowd-sourced mapping is Ushahidi (Swahili for ‘witness’), an open-sourced platform has been used for tracking and mobilizing movement around more serious topics. Ushahidi was used in developing Syria Tracker, a crowd-sourcing of reported deaths in the conflict in Syria. Now the Ushahidi platform is putting technology hubs in Africa on the map. The map, simply named Tech Hubs in Africa, was launched by Bongohive, a self described non-profit technology and innovation hub located in Lasaka, Zambia for one purpose: To have likeminded organizations across Africa — notorious for low levels of tech infrastructure — begin plotting the locations of tech hubs available around the continent right now.”

Source: Need To Find a Hackerspace In Africa? Check This Map

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When Did Irene Stop Being a Hurricane?

August 29th, 2011 08:55 admin View Comments

Earth

jamesl writes “Cliff Mass, a climate researcher at the University of Washington and popular Seattle blogger, asks, ‘When did Irene stop being a hurricane? … there is really no reliable evidence of hurricane-force winds at any time the storm was approaching North Carolina or moving up the East Coast. … I took a look at all the observations over Virgina, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York. Not one National Weather Service or FAA observation location, not one buoy observations, none reach the requisite wind speed. Most were not even close. … Surely, one of the observations upwind of landfall, over Cape Hatteras or one of the other barrier island locations, indicated hurricane-force sustained winds? Amazingly, the answer is still no.’ Cliff supports his statement with data from NOAA/NWS/NDBC presented in easy to understand charts.”

Source: When Did Irene Stop Being a Hurricane?

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iPhone Apps To Track Hurricane Irene

August 27th, 2011 08:27 admin View Comments

Bejeweled

According to reports, Hurricane Irene has swept over eastern North Carolina this afternoon. Though the hurricane has dropped to Category 1 storm, with maximum speeds of around 85mph, forecasters believe that it will still be a menacing hurricane.

So if you’re on the East Coast, and looking for apps to track Hurricane Irene, then here’s a list of apps.

Hurricane ($2.99) - This aptly named app called Hurricane developed by Kitty Cole is one of the most top rated and popular app in the App Store for tracking hurricanes. The app allows you to track the hurricane with animated satellite images and interactive forecast and tracking map and also offers an interactive 5 day forecast cone. It also tells you how far you are from various points in the storm. It also brings detailed video updates thanks to the partnership with HurrianceTrack.com.

It is currently available in the App Store for $2.99, which is a 25% discount. You can purchase and download it using this iTunes link.

Hurricane HD for iPad users is available in the App Store for $3.99 (iTunes link).

You may also checkout the following paid apps:

Hurricane Express  ($1.99) – also developed by Kitty Cole, is the Lite version of Hurricane for iPhone (iTunes link).

Hurricane Tracker  ($2.99) – is another top rated and popular app in the App Store. This app provides minute by minute update on Hurricane Irene with a live feed and frequent audio updates and tons of other features. (iTunes link)

You can also checkout the following free apps:

Hurricance Forecast – is one of the popular and top rated free app in the App Store with 4+ rating. (iTunes link)

HurricaneSoftware.com’s iHurricane HD with Push – is a popular free app. It offers in-app purchase of additional features such as Push and extended content. (iTunes link).

Digital Tools from FEMA:

FEMA has just launched two new digital tools – a FEMA Android app and Text Messaging service, which provide information about how to prepare for and recover from hurricanes. You can receive the updates on your iPhone as follows:

  • Text PREPARE to 43362 (4FEMA) to sign up to receive monthly disaster safety tips
  • Text SHELTER + your ZIP code to 43362 (4FEMA) to find the nearest shelter in your area (example: shelter 12345) (For availability of shelters and services, contact your local emergency management agency.)
  • Text DRC + your ZIP code to 43362 (4FEMA) to find the nearest disaster recovery center in your area (for example, if you lived in Annandale, Virginia with a Zip Code of 22003, you’d text DRC 22003).

In case, you’ve discovered a great app to track hurricanes that we’ve mentioned above, then please feel free to let us know in the comments.

To all our readers on the east coast, please take care and be safe!

Source: iPhone Apps To Track Hurricane Irene

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Hurricane Irene Prompts Unprecedented Evacuation of NYC

August 26th, 2011 08:37 admin View Comments

Earth

oxide7 links this bit of sobering news, as reported by the International Business Times: “For the first time, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered a mandatory evacuation of 300,000 residents of the cities coastal areas as Hurricane Irene barrels up the East Coast. Buses and subways prepared to shut on Saturday as Hurricane Irene approaches as well. All New Jersey rail service will be suspended from noon Saturday, while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will institute a shutdown of trains and buses starting at the same time. The suspension will include subways, buses, the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad and Access-A-Ride. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will suspend PATH train service at noon as well. ‘This is a mandatory evacuation,’ Bloomberg said. ‘By five o’clock tomorrow you have to be out. Waiting for the last minute is not a smart thing to do. This is life threatening.’” Good luck to everyone in the storm’s path: Irene is big. (Hat tip to Matt Lord.) What, if anything, are you doing to prepare? Having spent more than an hour in worse-than-usual D.C. traffic after Tuesday’s earthquake, I shudder to think of leaving New York in a rush.

Source: Hurricane Irene Prompts Unprecedented Evacuation of NYC

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How Scientists Are Predicting the Path of Hurricane Irene–And Why We’re Better At It Than Ever Before

August 26th, 2011 08:34 admin View Comments

The Eastern Seaboard is warily watching the progress of Hurricane Irene, wondering what course the storm will take and just how ferocious it will be. Predicting the path of a hurricane still involves some guesswork—but thanks to rapidly improving computer models and data-gathering abilities, Tekla Perry reports in IEEE Spectrum, scientists are able to make more accurate forecasts farther in advance than they were even five or ten years ago. In fact, the predicted track of a hurricane over the next 48 hours today is as accurate as a prediction for the next 24 hours was 10 years ago—a day that can make a big difference for people deciding whether to evacuate and how to prepare before the storm. Boosts in computing power mean scientists can run more, faster, and more detailed simulations of the storm, and technologies like Dopper radar provide detailed data on wind speed, air pressure, and temperature as storms progress.

Irene has been a relatively easy storm to predict so far, Frank D. Marks Jr., a NOAA hurricane researcher, told Spectrum, but that doesn’t mean scientists are able to tell residents of any particular city exactly what to expect, especially a few days out:

“People want to know, come Sunday, how big the storm surge will be in New Jersey and New York, what the wind speed will be within a knot or two, how much rain they’ll get, how fast the hurricane will be traveling,” Marks says. “And we’re not just there yet, though some models this year are showing a lot of promise.”

Read more at IEEE Spectrum.

Image courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Source: How Scientists Are Predicting the Path of Hurricane Irene–And Why We’re Better At It Than Ever Before

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Hurricane Irene Threatens US Northeast; Cover Your Assets

August 25th, 2011 08:58 admin View Comments

Data Storage

jfruhlinger writes “Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the heavily populated U.S. Northeast Corridor. If you work in IT, you know that there are few things that are worse for electronics than water; so, what’s your plan? Tom Henderson has come up with a checklist, which sensibly includes backing everything up, twice; not that you have time for it now, but for future reference you might want to consider just moving your whole data center to a location that’s been conveniently pre-hardened, like a water tower or a boiler room.” Note that Irene has been no joke in the Caribbean; in Puerto Rico (with relatively modern infrastructure), about a third of the island lost power.

Source: Hurricane Irene Threatens US Northeast; Cover Your Assets

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