Predicting hurricanes . Hurricanes having such destructive habits, it's no surprise that scientists and emergency managers want better prediction techniques. Trade winds blow hurricanes westward. As they move north, some hurricanes are caught by westerly winds, and end up cycling back eastward. Courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey .
Scientists use some hair-raising technology to make hurricane predictions.
They fly above storms and have begun parachuting miniature weather stations into the maelstrom to get data with unprecedented precision. They peer down from satellites to get the big picture. Then they crank up computers that would humiliate that box on your desk. After a long period marked by little gain in accuracy, the improvements in models, computers, satellites and aircraft, are improving track forecasts by 2 percent better per year, notes Christopher Velden, a hurricane researcher at of the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Today, 24-hour forecasts have an error of about 80 to 100 miles in either direction, says Velden.