The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has announced they will be using an updated experimental forecast cone graphic in the upcoming hurricane season which starts in the Atlantic on June 1. A beta version of the forecast visual was used during the 2024 hurricane season. This new graphic includes a depiction of inland tropical storm and hurricane watches and warnings in effect for the continental United States.
“Based on feedback received during the 2024 hurricane season, the experimental cone legend will now contain the symbology for areas where a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning are simultaneously in effect (diagonal pink and blue lines). The experimental cone graphic will be available on hurricanes.gov for full and intermediate advisories,” the NHC said in a product update bulletin.
The current operational cone graphic will continue to be available, and there will be no changes with respect to how watches and warnings are displayed on that graphic.
According to the NHC, recommendations from social science research suggest that the addition of inland watches and warnings to the cone graphic will help communicate wind risk during tropical cyclone events while not overcomplicating the current version of the graphic with too many data layers.
As was the case in the 2024 hurricane season, the experimental graphic may not be available as soon as the current cone graphic due to the time needed to compile complete inland watch and warning information, but the NHC says it should generally be available within 30 minutes of the advisory release.
During the experimental phase, technical issues could affect the timeliness or availability of the graphic. There will be opportunity for the public to provide comments and feedback during the product’s experimental phase.
