Updated 06/02/2007 - Added NHC Discussions and forecast tracks for both Atlantic and EPacific storms. You can currently see Tropical Storm Barbara and Tropical Depression Barry in the link. Also changed the other layers that were already there to expose the legend so that you can turn it off whenever the nasty ScreenOverlay bug attacks. I really hope that the Google folks are looking at that because it's annoying as hell. See this discussion for information on that bug.
YOU MUST RE-DOWNLOAD THE FILE ATTACHED TO THE FIRST POST!

I'm a new user to Google Earth. Weather is a hobby for me, especially tropical weather therefore the tropicwatch layer is right up my alley. I think I am having a problem viewing the NHC Discussion layer. I do have the latest version of GE. When trying to view the NHC Discussion layer, all I get is the legend. I do notice in the legend markers for INV and TD. Should I be seeing these or will there only be data available when a storm is named?

Thanks in Advance...
Mark

As a quick answer, before Paul can actually respond. I believe it is only available during active storms. The kml file has been updated lately so I don't know for sure if it still works the same.

ItsAllInYourHead is correct. If a storm is being actively discussed by NHC, it should show up in the layer.

Unfortunately, after a discussion via email with NHC today, it seems they've taken their FTP data offline and I'm going to have to rewrite the parser to consume an html page. I'll look at it tonight or tomorrow....well, I can't be sure it's fixed until we see another invest at least....unless that blob in the NWCarb is still and invest.

Paul

Updated 07/14/2007 - Changed the source of the radar data. Data has less noise in it now. Also now pack the radar images into the KMZ so that animations are MUCH MUCH smoother (albeit with more damage to my bandwidth). We'll see how that goes. This update should be transparent...no action on users part required.

Paul

There's a tropical depression in the Pacific right now and possible another, according to TWC. So I turned on the NHC Discussions layer and it says no active storms. Is this related to the HC change where you have to switch to HTML instead? Or is this a bug in the file that isn't putting out the storm data? Thanks, Paul!

This is a bug(or whatever you might wish to call it) with the NHC killing their FTP server in the middle of the Tropical Season for maintenance. I'm looking at other sources now, but I spent of my time writing code that parsed what used to be provided on that FTP.

Their response to my query about this was as follows...

Quote:

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...Because they are not operational servers, there isn't a definite timetable. But work is being done on them...hopefully complete by the middle of the summer. ...

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I'm looking into a temporary solution, but definitely will have the Atlantic covered.

Thanks,

Paul

Wow! That's "nice" of them. The National Hurricane Center seems to be going to shambles right now.

Updated 07/27/2007 - Changed the source of the Lightning Data to Astrogenic / StrikeStarUS . Big thanks to the folks at Astrogenic for their help. Should be transparent to folks. Will have a breaking change later this weekend that will require that you re-download the parent link.

Paul

Updated 08/12/2007 - Added GOES Visible & IR Imagery. These are set up as WMS's, so you just fly around and the images will update automatically. Changed the radar source...AGAIN!. This season has been especially frustrating with data sources going down...makes for a lot of work for me. Reorganized the data so that the legends don't get all fubared. Will add spaghetti models back very soon. Official NHC discussions will appear when valid.
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Looks like the GOES Visible may be down temporarily...Murphy's law I guess. I'll try to keep an eye on it. I'm getting awfully tired of disappearing data sources.... ughhhhhhh.

Paul