Prepare a map before printing
Return to Gale Watch and choose Print / PDF from the app menu. The app prepares a complete
map image with storm overlays, scale, attribution and version. Google imagery requires the
offered switch to Esri.
No Google imagery is included in this output.
THE DATA BEHIND THE MAP
Know what you’re looking at.
Live source coverage and polling health ↗
Map references
OpenFreeMap supplies
OpenStreetMap (ODbL) and
OpenMapTiles references;
Natural Earth supplies
public-domain ocean and sea names. Major names and borders start on. Sources may differ in
coverage and names; borders marked as disputed retain that distinction. Layer status and
retry are in Map layers. Exports credit only references that loaded.
Reference data and library licences
Report states
Current report: an active source record, which may already be old. Past report: a source
record that is no longer active. Dated snapshot: a bundled fallback with its original issue
time. Saved revision: an explicitly pinned historical report. Historical replay: IBTrACS
positions. Custom scenario: illustrative user geometry. Agency advisories, agency analyses
and GDACS discovery reports are distinct sources, not interchangeable forecasts.
Connection and timeline terms
Live updates connected: the update channel is open, not a guarantee of fresh data.
Refreshing reports: the latest saved records are being fetched. Reconnecting: the update
channel is unavailable; displayed reports are retained. Reported position: a source-supplied
position. Forecast position: a future estimate, drawn with a dashed track. Historical
position: a position in the historical archive. Illustrative scenario: user-entered values,
not an agency forecast.
Wind, eye and surge
Azimuthal interpolation joins supplied quadrant radii linearly between quadrant midpoints.
At a missing or zero quadrant, that sector stays open; the adjacent supplied radius is held
to its boundary. Turn interpolation off in Map & tools to see the raw source sectors.
Custom scenarios use user-defined radii. Source polygons without supplied quadrant values
remain unchanged.
Wind footprints show the reported outer extent of a wind threshold, not uniform wind
everywhere inside it. The cone represents track uncertainty, not storm size. An eye is drawn
only where its diameter is supplied; a centre marker alone is not an observed eye.
Direction arrows illustrate hemispheric cyclone circulation. They do not constitute a local
wind forecast or a new surge simulation. Official NHC surge grids already incorporate
atmospheric forcing, tides, terrain and uncertainty.
Flood colours preserve the source grid classes. Uncoloured areas are
no data / no mapped class , never proof of no flooding. Levee areas and tidal masks
are separate classes. A high-resolution basemap does not improve the resolution of a flood
model.
Global archive winds use USA 1-minute values where available, otherwise the WMO agency value
with its native averaging period. Coverage varies by storm and era. No surge or eye data is
invented where none is supplied.
NHC GIS products ↗
·
NOAA IBTrACS ↗
·
USGS measured flood evidence ↗
Storm Atlas