NOAA

With the Atlantic hurricane center just weeks away, hurricane forecasters are preparing to launch a new suite of tools with a looming budget cut threatening to slash research efforts.

For the upcoming season, the National Hurricane Center will be testing a forecast cone that ups the certainty of track predictions from just under 70% to 90%. A new mobile-friendly forecast page will make it easier to read information on phones. And forecasts, as last year’s lethal Hurricane Melissa demonstrated, continue to dramatically improve, National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said Wednesday. These are forecasts that we simply were not able to make more than five or ten years ago,” Brennan said during the Governor’s Hurricane Conference in West Palm Beach.