Category: New Features

The HURREVAC team deployed several upgrades and changes on August 15. These enhancements are mainly focused on the integration of Points of Interest with evacuation timing tools. One general improvement involves the resizing of reports in the right Side Panel. Reports have variable widths, so the panel now automatically expands to show all columns and data. Timeline Actions NEW: Timeline actions can be created for a point of interest, rather than a county (or parish) at large. Read the timeline actions page of the HURREVAC user guide for more details (login required). CHANGE: Increased character limit on Timeline Item Abbreviation from 10 to 20 characters CHANGE: Time offset is only in relation to the Arrival of Tropical-Storm-Force Winds (34 kt / 39 mph). Previous nonoperational prompts for arrival of strong tropical-storm-force winds (50 kt / 58 mph) and closest approach of the eye were removed. Actions that were previously saved using those factors may still be listed under Saved Timelines, but are not applied elsewhere in the program. CHANGE: Improved sorting functionality of Saved Timelines list. A Type column was added to distinguish county-based and POI-based actions. Timing Arcs NEW: Timing Arcs can be plotted for new POI-based timeline actions. These arcs are drawn from the exact point rather than the geographic center of a county. CHANGE: Clarified labels on tooltips and legend entries for timing arcs. Evacuation Timing Report NEW: POI-based timeline actions are included in the report. Read the evacuation timing report page of the HURREVAC user guide for examples. CHANGE: Relabeled and reformatted columns for easier interpretation of data. Light blue columns show the relation between Earliest Reasonable TS Wind Onset and Earliest Evac (Action) Start Time data. Blue columns show the relation between Most Likely TS Wind Onset and Latest Evac (Action) Start Time data. CHANGE: Reformatted text style of rows to distinguish evacuation scenarios (bold) and timeline actions (italic). CHANGE: By default, report is initially sorted by Earliest Evac (Action) Start Time. All other columns are now sortable. FIX: Repaired scenarios and actions for Miami-Dade County, Florida. To see correct functionality for Miami-Dade in this report, enter or reenter new scenarios and actions, and delete the old items from your user profile. Points of Interest CHANGE: Geocode Search button renamed as Add POI to better reflect its purpose. CHANGE: Latitude and longitude columns are again displayed by default. These can be hidden by clicking the arrow of any column header, selecting Columns from the list, then unchecking the boxes next to Lat and Lon. CHANGE: Initial Map Display Level slider expanded so that the widest maximum display can be set to level 4 instead of level 5.

The HURREVAC team implemented two changes to the program for the start of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season: enhanced display settings for Points of Interest and a new system for Notifications. Several data layers were recently expanded or added to HURREVAC due to changes in National Hurricane Center products. If you have not already, be sure to read about the developments in our previous announcement. As of June 1, HURREVAC also incorporates the expansion of the Weather Prediction Center’s operational Excessive Rainfall Outlook to Days 4 and 5. Enhanced Points of Interest (POI) Points of Interest (POI) are user-defined locations that you can highlight on the map or analyze for reports. Previously, all POI had the same look and were managed through the User Preferences window. Now, POI appearance can be customized and differentiated according to their type. Plus, the interface is redesigned for easier management of POI types. To open, click the Map Tools folder and select Points of Interest from the list. The Points of Interest window is anchored over the tracking map in the top right corner of the workspace. You now have the ability to assign or edit the POI type directly from this window. The steps for adding, importing, exporting and deleting POI are mostly the same as before. To change the styling of POI, click POI Styles at the bottom of the POI list, or open User Preferences and go to the POI Style Settings tab. This window is anchored over the map in the lower right corner of the workspace. There, you have options to add or remove POI types, then edit and save the styles associated with each. The menus let you customize the label font, font style, font size, font color, symbol size, symbol color, and initial map display level. For example, you could create a POI type called “Hospitals.” All POIs with that type would show up on the map with a blue circle with black label text in the Arial font. Read more step-by-step instructions and examples in the updated HURREVAC User Guide. (login required) Further POI enhancements are in development, look for announcements this summer. Notifications The new notification feature is designed to give you timely information to get the most out of the program. The HURREVAC team plans to send occasional and useful updates about the program’s tools and data. Routine information, like an announcement about changes to a HURREVAC tool, will passively appear in the Notification Center. As warranted, notifications may be sent when there are significant developments during active storms or other high-impact situations. As part of this upgrade, you’ll also see a new look for some of the familiar pop-up windows (dialog boxes) when you complete or confirm an action in HURREVAC. Why notifications? ● when there’s something new that you may not be expecting, like initiation of advisories, a special Tropical Weather Outlook or special advisory. ● when something you’re expecting becomes available, like a landfall update, a storm surge hindcast or SLOSH data download. ● when something you’re expecting is not available, like if a selected map layer does not exist for a particular storm or advisory, or if the team is working to resolve an issue that affects the system. When can I expect notifications? Who is sending them? Some notifications are automatically generated by the system, and many of the familiar pop-up windows in the program will be incorporated into the new look. The symbol for system notifications is an exclamation mark in a yellow triangle. Most system notifications are triggered by a user action (confirmation, errors, completed task, etc.). Users can also expect to see notifications authored and sent by the HURREVAC team (National Hurricane Program partners or Sea Island Software). Notifications that pop over the workspace will be limited to important and time-sensitive situations, mainly during active storms. These will be designated with a red exclamation mark icon. Information that is not time-sensitive or of a lower priority, like an announcement about a new feature in the program, will go to the Notification Center without triggering a pop-up. These are assigned a blue exclamation mark icon. Storm updates will initially be limited to situations that are of concern to the United States and territories, and the intent is to elevate key developments or new data that will be of broad interest to the affected emergency management community. HURREVAC’s notifications are not intended to be a means for users to receive or convey watch and warning information from the National Weather Service, evacuation announcements, or other official communication, so continue to use other sources for those types of information. Where will I find notifications in the program? Look in the upper right corner of the workspace. Click on the new bell icon at the top of the map tools bar to open the Notification Center. The Notification Center can be expanded to cover the tracking map, resized, and individual messages can be opened in a new window. When there is a new or unread notification, there will be a red dot over the bell icon. Once the notification is opened or acknowledged, the dot disappears. High-priority pop-up notifications are anchored in the top right corner of the tracking map. Some system-generated notifications are intended to time out, or expire after about 15 to 20 seconds. These have a small circular countdown timer near the close (X) button. Click the timer icon to stop the countdown and keep the notification on the screen. Is there anything I have to do to get notifications? What if I miss one? No action is required to start receiving HURREVAC’s notifications, the functionality is automatically integrated for every user. Our team is mindful that many people use a variety of messaging platforms, so we’ve made sure that there is no need to delete or manage your HURREVAC inbox, too. System-generated notifications expire automatically. Authored notifications will be removed by HURREVAC’s administrators after a set time, or once they are no longer current. If…

HURREVAC will incorporate updated products from the National Hurricane Center for the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season. The Peak Storm Surge forecast graphic is added to the Storm Tools bar to coincide with the operational issuance of the product this year. The new icon is located between “Watches and Warnings” and “Potential Storm Surge Flooding.” Peak Storm Surge forecasts were issued experimentally for three storms in the 2022 season: Fiona, Ian, and Nicole. Those products were added to the HURREVAC archive for training purposes. This product visualizes the peak surge inundation values listed in the public advisory, and will be available when storm surge watches or warnings are in effect for the mainland United States, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands. Read more in the updated User Guide page (login required). Starting this year, the Tropical Weather Outlook is extended to 7 days. The 7-day formation probability replaces the 5-day probability. A 2-day probability will continue to be issued. When applicable, outlook areas will also contain the associated invest identification number (for example, “AL91”). Potential Storm Surge Flooding maps will now be available for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This product will continue to be issued when storm surge watches or warnings are in effect along the Gulf and Atlantic coastlines of the United States. Unlike those areas, any maps issued for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will account for water level rise resulting from nearshore breaking waves. Watch and warning information will only be listed in the public advisory, which is found in the “Text Advisories” window in HURREVAC. To reduce duplication and potential for errors, NHC will no longer list watch and warning information separately in the forecast advisory. The Potential Track Area (Error Cone) size is updated to reflect NHC forecast performance for the 2018-2022 period. The cone definitions for the Eastern Pacific basin also changed slightly. Read the NHC’s 2023 product update (PDF) for more details about these changes. More improvements are in store for the HURREVAC workspace in 2023. Developers are working on two main projects: in-app notifications and enhancements to points of interest. Check back by June 1 for another announcement with more details. Sign up for the 2023 HURREVAC training webinar series to learn more about these updated products and features during the week of June 12.

During February, the HURREVAC team implemented many enhancements to the layout, functionality and performance of reports. These changes are also documented in updates to the HURREVAC user guide. The 2023 season version of HURREVAC is under development, so check back this spring for more announcements about new features and virtual training opportunities. NEW: Three reports – Wind Timing Report for a Location, Probabilistic Wind Timing Report, and Evacuation Timing Report – have new logic that can return a value of “TBD.” This indicates that the latest advisory products are in the process of coming out but the probabilistic wind timing is not yet completely available. “TBD” will briefly show up near the advisory issuance hour when the newest track and text products appear, but the graphical wind probabilities and wind timing graphics still show data for the previous advisory. If “TBD” is displayed, rerun the report in approximately 10 minutes to take advantage of the latest data. The report descriptions were also updated to reflect his change. NEW: Added messaging in the report data table to let the user know when a report is in the process of being generated, the report generation has failed, or when the report has finished running but there are no affected areas for the particular advisory and scope. NEW: All report descriptions can be collapsed by clicking the arrow in the header. Click the icon again to expand the text. NEW: All reports contain a direct link to the relevant user guide page. Click the question mark to get help. CHANGE: The search bar for multi-location reports is now located above the report description. Previously, the search bar was between the description and report table. FIX: A user’s scope selection (Base State, Base County, etc.) is retained and applied to new reports generated in the same HURREVAC session. FIX: Corrected a bug that caused Probabilistic Wind Timing Report to fail if there were no points of interest (POIs) stored in the user profile. FIX: Adjusted column spacing so report values are visible in all display modes. Also improved report visibility when the left and right side panels overlap. FIX: Improved performance of some multi-location wind reports.

HURREVAC has a new look for 2023. This update features new color options for the interface, redesigned tool icons and more options for viewing latitude and longitude. Display Mode Display Mode is a new tab in the User Preferences window. There, users can choose one of these options to set as a default: Light Dark Blue Classic (this is how HURREVAC has looked for the past few seasons) Click a tile to preview the option. The selected display mode is used whenever HURREVAC is opened. To try out another look, just reopen User Preferences. The program has the same features and functionality with each color theme, but the layout may change slightly in certain parts of the workspace. The display mode does not affect the colors used for the map layers, storm tracks, or other live weather data. New Icons HURREVAC also has dozens of revamped icons to go with the new display modes. This is the second phase of a project to optimize the user interface. The redesign began with the new HURREVAC logo and toolbox icons in 2022. The new look is rolling out for the storm tools, map tools and utilities bar icons in 2023. All tools and layers will work the same way as before. Hold the pointer or mouse over an icon to see its name in a tooltip. Latitude and Longitude Settings HURREVAC users now have more control over the appearance of latitude and longitude on the tracking map. These options are found in the Map Settings tab of User Preferences. By default, Latitude and Longitude Display is set to Lines Only. To add 1-degree tick marks between the lines, choose Lines and Tick Marks from the list. If you want a clean map view, choose None. These line and tick mark settings are applied to whatever basemap is displayed, which is still a separate selection. Previously, the 1-degree tick marks were only available by choosing the Classic basemap. Users who want the Classic appearance together with tick marks will need to make this one-time selection in User Preferences. We encourage you to explore the new Display Modes, Map Settings and basemaps to create your custom HURREVAC workspace. The HURREVAC team is already working on more upgrades and new features ahead of the next hurricane season.  If you have feedback about the changes described in this post, comments about how you used the program in 2022, or suggestions for what you would like to see in the future, please reach out to us at [email protected].