WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — To everyone but weather buffs, cloud swirls off Africa's coast have never generated much interest. Only when those swirls grew into cyclones did the South Florida masses take note.
Now, those all-too-common bundles of rain and wind are garnering massive interest on the Internet, bringing a slew of visitors to the National Hurricane Center's Web site.
From the beginning of hurricane season through July 30, the feature that uses "genesis forecasting" to predict the future of Atlantic disturbances has gotten 2,020,283 hits on the center's Web site, the center says. That averages out to more than 500,000 hits per week or about 72,000 hits per day.
"We've had tremendous success with it," said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "When someone sees a swirl of clouds on a satellite picture, they can simply move their mouse over it and see what the probability is for it to develop. It's basically one-stop shopping for everything you need to know."
For decades, the hurricane center has produced a "tropical weather outlook" that aims to glimpse the future of the tropics. Now, they've simply added the graphical representation of that "genesis" forecast.
The result: Their graphical outlook receives about 10 times as much traffic as the text-only version.
Here's how the tool works: Each disturbance with potential to become a storm is circled, color-coded according to its growth potential, and described in detail by forecasters. Users can move their mouse around to any spot in the Atlantic to see what's brewing.
The feature has been such a hit with the public that forecasters now give it top billing on their Web site and update it four times a day.
Vince Bonvento, assistant county administrator and director of public safety for Palm Beach County, said time will tell how the new feature affects emergency management.
"Its just another tool that we'll definitely be able to look at when we start making decisions in the future," said Bonvento. "We're kind of anxious to see how it's going to affect our decision making.
"Hopefully, we won't have to play with it too much this year."
But with 100 or so tropical waves that form every hurricane season, and only one in 10 becoming depressions or stronger, is it wise for the hurricane center to call attention to every blip on the radar?
Feltgen says users can look at the map, take stock of the information, and easily decipher for themselves whether they need to be worried.
"If we've got a disturbance circled off the coast of Africa, anyone who's curious about it could have their questions answered right out the gate," said Feltgen. "By looking at the map, they can see this is at an incredibly far distance and there's no concern."
Kevin Deutsch writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: kevin UNDERSCORE deutsch AT pbpost.com