About

I'm Sam McDowell, a senior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach. I'm majoring in Aeronautical Science with a minor in meteorology, and I'm also earning my Aircraft Dispatcher Certificate through Embry-Riddle's program. I hold a private pilot certificate with an instrument rating, and I'm working on my commercial certificate. On campus, I'm the lead tutor in the Embry-Riddle Weather Lab.

My goal is to fly hurricane reconnaissance with NOAA.

Why I built this site

Rapid intensification is one of the hardest problems in hurricane forecasting. A storm that strengthens by 30 knots or more in a day can leave coastal communities with little time to prepare. I built this site to look at rapid intensification from several angles: how well NHC's SHIPS-RII guidance predicts it, whether marine heatwaves make it more likely, and what Hurricane Hunter aircraft measure while it happens. The marine heatwave work is part of undergraduate research I'm doing with an Embry-Riddle faculty member.

I also built CrosswindWx, a free weather resource for general aviation pilots.

About the data

Everything here comes from public NOAA data, mainly from the National Hurricane Center and the National Centers for Environmental Information. The site updates automatically several times a day.

This is an independent student project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by NOAA, the National Hurricane Center, or Embry-Riddle. For official forecasts and warnings, always use the National Hurricane Center.

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