Hurricane Lowell
About this tracker

Sources and how it works

An independent view of official information. We do not issue forecasts, warnings or emergency instructions.

Go straight to the source

Evacuations, shelters & closures

Local emergency authorities publish instructions for their communities. Their notices are separate from the storm forecast.

Find local authorities →

What you’re looking at

Official updates are facts from the issuing weather agency. Model tracks are computer predictions, not additional official forecasts. Satellite images show clouds, not conditions on the ground. Reporting and community material are labelled separately.

Can I rely on the time shown?

“Issued” is when the weather agency published an update. “Last checked” is when we checked its source. Neither means conditions are measured continuously. Each map or image has its own timestamp.

If a source fails, we may show the last saved information with a warning. Missing warnings are not an all-clear. Follow the official source and local emergency instructions.

Technical details & source policy

Official weather information

We follow Hurricane Lowell using its official tracking ID, EP122026. An advisory is an official weather update. Follow the linked weather agency for the latest warnings and your local authorities for emergency instructions.

What we save

We keep a copy of each official update, its original measurements, its source link, when it was issued and when we downloaded it. Unit conversions are for display only. We never guess missing information.

How current is the information?

We check official storm updates and maps every five minutes, and satellite images every ten minutes. If a check fails, we keep the last successfully saved information. The page warns when updates are delayed or out of date. When official updates end, the site becomes an archive of the storm.

Maps and satellite images

Forecast maps come from the official weather agency and include a source link and timestamp. The interactive map uses official track data where available. A written description is also provided if the map cannot load.

The GOES-West satellite images show observed cloud patterns, not a forecast. They are credited to CIRA/NOAA and are not intended for operational decisions. Animations play only when you choose to start them. A missing satellite image does not mean the storm update is out of date.

Our role

This is an independent tracker, not a government weather service. We do not issue forecasts, evacuation advice or emergency warnings. Our copies may arrive later than the original information, so always check the official source.

Regional alerts and local authorities

The local-alerts module reads NWS’s active-alert feed for the configured region every five minutes. It is regional information, not a claim that every notice is caused by Lowell or affects every address. County evacuation, shelter and closure information is linked separately; it is not comprehensively included in the NWS feed.

We retain original responses, source URLs, hashes and fetch history. Only actual alerts are displayed, not test messages. Updates and cancellations replace referenced notices, and messages are hidden after their expiry or end time. After a failed check or 15 minutes without a successful check, retained notices are labelled unconfirmed. After one hour without a successful check, they are hidden. An empty or unavailable feed is never an all-clear. Regional feed health does not change the storm advisory’s freshness.

Local authority links are a directory, not live alerts. Urgent notices are not rotated away. Educational pages are independent summaries with primary-source links and a source-check date, not advice tailored to an address. NWS alert service documentation ↗

Optional model comparison

“Compare models” adds computer-predicted storm paths from NOAA’s public ATCF guidance files. These are separate from the bold blue official forecast. GFS and HAFS-A are individual model tracks; GEFS mean is an ensemble average related to GFS. HAFS-B is another version of the HAFS hurricane model. They are not independent votes or equally likely outcomes, and their spread is not a replacement for the official uncertainty cone.

We check these files every 30 minutes, retain the source file and show each model’s run time. Only supported models with valid positions and at least a 24-hour track are included, up to five days per run. We do not join different runs together. Runs over 12 hours old are labelled; runs over 36 hours old are hidden. A failed model refresh keeps the last usable tracks with a warning and does not change official advisory freshness. Model positions and times are available in text if the interactive map cannot load.

More models can include the Canadian global model (CMC), the U.S. Navy’s NAVGEM and its COAMPS-TC hurricane model. COAMPS-TC uses GFS initial and boundary conditions. Availability depends on the source file; unsupported or unavailable models are not shown. Canadian model data source: Environment and Climate Change Canada, under the ECCC data licence. Data is provided as-is; no endorsement is implied.

The forecast-time slider highlights supplied model points at the same absolute time, even when runs start at different times. It does not invent hourly positions or carry a model past its final point. If a model has no point at the selected time, its dot is hidden and labelled unavailable. Full paths remain visible for context; the official forecast and cone do not move. “Full tracks” restores every supplied point.

Model paths are for context, not emergency decisions. NHC’s guide to model guidance ↗