THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 2, 1995 TAG: 9509300040
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: THE GATEWAY
EXPLORING THE COMPUTER WORLD
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
TELL PEOPLE that hurricanes can and have slammed into Hampton Roads, sometimes reshaping its geography, and you'll often get little more than a dismissive grin or a fearless shrug. Maybe both.
Many people don't believe it. Others don't care.
Now there's a dandy diskette called Enhanced Storm '95 that should at least hammer home that, historically, this region is vulnerable. It might even humble a cynic.
Used primarily for tracking storms, the real value of this program, designed by Tom Pesek of Utopia Software in Houston, is its database of hurricanes dating back to the beginning of the century. A search-and-compare operation called ``Storm Genie'' allows easy use of data for almost 200 storms from this century. There's also data on 150 Pacific storms. (And you can order extra disks that include more than 800 Atlantic/Gulf storms or 620 Pacific storms.)
Our copy of Storms arrived as Hurricane Felix was hovering off the coast. The National Hurricane Center was suggesting the storm might make a loop.
Using Storm Genie, we not only found other storms that had been at the same point offshore, but in just seconds found several that had looped - some hitting the area, others turning away.
You can search the data base using any combination of several options: years of occurrence, location of storms, time of season, a specific city/place and storm strength.
The basic program operates simply and logically.
Configuration allows immediate specialization to suit personal needs, including: a default map (Gulf of Mexico, East Coast, Atlantic or Pacific oceans); time zone; wind speed (knots or mph); and central pressure (inches or millibars). Printer options are generic, Epson or laserjet.
You enter a new storm by name or number and then update its latitude and longitude, wind speed and central pressure. That information is put out by the National Hurricane Center at least every six hours and is available from a variety of sources such as newspapers, various online services, and the Weather Channel. The software calculates forward speed and direction. It also tells you what category of storm it is on the five-tier Saffir-Simpson scale, how far away it is from whatever key city you select from 47 offered and how quickly it could reach that location.
You can print out the list of locations as well as tracking maps.
When displaying storm tracks on screen, you have numerous options. Especially useful: display of storms by color-coded intensity or comparison of various storms, each with its own track color. And you can zoom in on particular locations.
If you are concerned about vessels at sea or offshore platforms, you can list up to 20 of them on the program as well.
As with any program, individual users may wish for some extra functions. For instance:
You can include the National Hurricane Center's 72-hour forecast track, but only for one storm at a time. That's a nuisance when you are tracking more than one storm.
The database uses only the last two numerals of the year. . . a problem when the year 2000 rolls around. Also, the name field for storms is a few characters short for longer names.
It would be useful for research if the database could be organized by year as well as alphabetically and if each storm had a summary including reported deaths, amount of destruction, nature of tides/flooding, highest wind gusts and records set.
There is a tips text file that includes definition of key terms, a detailed explanation of the Saffir-Simpson scale and information on how to prepare for a hurricane. The program file also includes the lists of storm names through 2000.
The map displays the location and name of only the key city identified by the user. An overlay function that allowed display of country, city and island names would be helpful. Especially one that became more detailed as one zooms in.
(You can cheat and do this yourself by using the vessel/platform option and listing places and locations instead. We added 20 cities, but discovered that the map is somewhat askew, with a margin of error of about a half-degree. For instance, when we entered the latitude and longitude for Charleston, S.C., the city turned up in the ocean. Snorkels, anyone?)
Overall, however, benefits far outweigh shortcomings. Enhanced Storm '95 is instructive, useful and fun. MEMO: Enhanced Storm '95 (DOS and Windows), $50 ($35 for a basic version),
Utopia Software, P.O. Box 420324, Houston, 77042-0324; (713) 493-2282.
For information on obtaining tracking positions for any past
hurricane or tropical storm, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to
THR, P.O. Box 13191, Chesapeake, Va. 23325-0191.
by CNB