Help & Legend

Not an official source. Track My Storm shows publicly available NOAA data that may be delayed, incomplete or inaccurate. Always follow the National Hurricane Center and your local emergency management officials.

Storm categories and colors

Markers and list dots are colored by the Saffir-Simpson scale, using 1-minute sustained winds. Wind speeds follow your unit setting (⚙ Units on the map).

• Tropical DepressionUp to 38 mph
• Tropical Storm39 mph – 72 mph
• Category 1 Hurricane74 mph – 94 mph
• Category 2 Hurricane96 mph – 109 mph
• Category 3 Hurricane110 mph – 129 mph
• Category 4 Hurricane130 mph – 157 mph
• Category 5 Hurricane158 mph or more
• Post-tropical / OtherRemnant, post-tropical or other system

Track lines

• Solid linePast (observed) track of an active storm.
• Dashed lineNHC forecast track of an active storm.
• Faint shaded areaForecast cone: the probable track of the storm's center. It does not show the storm's size or where impacts will occur.
• Thin dotted, muted linePast-season (2026) storm track, shown when you tick it in the season list.
• Thin colored linesSpaghetti models: individual computer model forecasts for the selected storm.
• Timeline markerSolid marker = observed position; outlined marker tagged "FORECAST" = forecast position.

Map layers

• Watches & WarningsNHC coastal alerts. Red = hurricane warning, pink = hurricane watch, blue = tropical storm warning, yellow = tropical storm watch.
• Wind speed probabilitiesChance that winds of the chosen strength occur at a location over the next 5 days, for the selected storm.5-10%10-20%20-30%30-40%40-50%50-60%60-70%70-80%80-90%>90%
• Hurricane HuntersReconnaissance aircraft from NHC mission reports (AF3xx, NOAA2/3/9): NOAA P-3 Orion, NOAA G-IV jet and Air Force WC-130J, each with its own color, plus the next planned flights from the Plan of the Day.
• Rainfall outlookNOAA's Excessive Rainfall Outlook, Day 1 to Day 5: Marginal, Slight, Moderate, High risk of flash flooding.
• Flood alertsActive National Weather Service flood warnings with a mapped area. Some are issued by county only and can't be drawn.
• Storm surge floodingNHC's potential storm surge flooding map, only when NHC issues one (U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts).
• SatelliteGOES infrared cloud imagery (U.S. region), with a loop of recent frames.
• RadarU.S. national radar (MRMS), with a loop of recent frames.
• My locationA pin you set, with the nearest storm's distance and approximate forecast closest approach. Saved only in your browser.

Update times and warnings

• "Updated … ago"When that layer last loaded successfully from NOAA. Each layer has its own time.
• Data may be out of dateThe layer hasn't refreshed in more than twice its normal interval (2 hours for hourly data, 5 minutes for aircraft).
• "Unable to refresh…"The latest refresh failed. The last good data stays on screen, with the time it's from.
• TimesShown in your local time or UTC (⚙ Units), labeled with the zone. Text copied from NOAA products, like "Issued 500 AM MST", stays as NOAA wrote it.