World-Time

Tracking Hurricanes on the Palmtop

I have always been fascinated with the powers of nature, and an avid watcher of hurricanes. Now, with my HP Palmtop I can actually follow the path of a hurricane in progress. Here's how.

At the time of this writing there is a hurricane in the Atlantic ocean named Edouard that has just been declared a 4 in intensity. Hurricanes are given a status from 1 (weakest) to 5 (strongest) based on wind speed and destructive power. Edouard was declared a hurricane on Friday, August 23, 1996. At that time its location was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with an actual location of Latitude 13.9 and Longitude 39.1. (Latitude and Longitude information can be found in most newspapers and in various locations on the Internet). This gives us enough information to start tracking Edouard. To do this follow the steps below.

  1. 1. Open World Time on your Palmtop by pressing (CTRL)-(HPCALC).

  2. 2. Add Edouard to World Time. To do this, press (F2) (Add). Start by entering two (2) spaces so that this entry will appear at the top of World Time each time we open it. Enter the name Edouard followed by the date (e.g. Edouard 08/23/96).

  3. 3. Press (ALT)-(D) to move to the Latitude field. Enter 13.9.

  4. 4. Tab to the Longitude field, and enter 39.1.

  5. 5. Press (F8) (Locate). World Time displays the exact location of the hurricane in the middle of a pair of cross-hairs.

  6. 6. Press (ESC) or (F9) to return to the City screen, then press (F10) (Done) to return to the All Cities list.

World Time's Map screen showing Edouard's location in cross-hairs.

We have added the first day of Hurricane Edouard. To track Edouard add a new Edouard entry to the World Time All Cities list every day until the hurricane is downgraded.

TRACKING THE HURRICANE

Using this method, you may be able to predict the location where the hurricane will hit land. To do this, after you have tracked Edouard for four or five day's worth of locations:

  1. 1. Highlight the first Edouard entry, and press (F10) (Map). The blinking circle you see on your screen is the location of the hurricane on the first day.

World Time's Map screen showing Edouard's location as a circle (circle blinks on Palmtop display)

  1. 2. DownArrow to your second entry for Edouard and view its location in the same way, then the third entry, and so forth. Watch the progress of Edouard over the days you have tracked it. From the movements you have recorded you can try to predict Edouard's next move.

When you are done tracking the hurricane, simply delete these Edouard entries from your World Time list by highlighting each entry and pressing (Spacebar) to tag them. When you have tagged all the entries you want, press (DEL), then press (ENTER) (OK).

Tom Gibson

E-mail: tom_gibson@thaddeus.com