Here's how to track Hurricane Irma
Hurricanes and tropical storms move fast -- with Category 5 Hurricane Irma, that's 185-mph-winds fast. The country is still reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey on the Gulf Coast, but hurricane season has already moved onto the next storm.
To keep up with the latest on Hurricane Irma, currently in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida, we've compiled the best online resources.
Stock up on facts
The National Hurricane Center should be the first place you go for accurate, timely info on wind speeds, forecasts, warnings, and everything else storm related. The website is a go-to site, but so is the main Twitter feed, along with the Atlantic Ops Twitter feed from the National Weather Service, which is also keeping up with the hurricane.
Florida, Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean islands are expecting to take the brunt of the storm. Local leaders are posting updates and resources about preparing for the natural disaster. Florida Gov. Rick Scott held a briefing on Irma Tuesday evening after declaring a state of emergency. His Twitter page has more emergency updates. Puerto Rico's governor, Ricardo Rossello, is also posting storm info and resources.
In south Florida, the Keys and Monroe County are preparing for landfall and many state agencies are keeping watch on the storm, and you can follow along.
The federal emergency agency, FEMA, is also full of storm updates and links out to social media accounts to follow about disaster preparedness and relief.
See it to believe it
Astronauts in space help provide a "bigger picture" view of these storms. Many NASA Twitter pages send out images and video from space, like the International Space Station page or individual astronauts.
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Hurricane Hunters from NOAA and the U.S. Air Force Reserves also capture images from within the storm.
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NOAA's satellite imagery brings the severity of the storm into focus.
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Chase the storm
Twitter is full of media experts (like Mashable's own senior science editor), devoted meteorologists, and other hardcore weather geeks.
Some accounts to follow:
Josh Morgerman, self-described "hardcore hurricane chaser"
Greg Postel, The Weather Channel's hurricane expert
Robert Speta, meteorologist and weather geek
Jim Edds, extreme weather photographer
Many media outlets, including Mashable, closely follow big storms like Harvey and Irma. Local news outlets in Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands and Florida are ramping up Irma coverage as the storm moves to those areas. National outlets like USA TODAY and CNN Weather are deep in coverage.
Irma's shaping up to be a historic hurricane, so all eyes are on the storm (and our TV, smartphone and computer screens).
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
