Forecast Maps for Active Storms
Current Weather Forecasts for Ports
Tropical Storm Data Sites
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Cruisers often wonder about the weather they will encounter on their cruise, especially when there is a major storm reported in the area of their cruise. These situations point up one of the major advantages of a cruise vacation over a land-based vacation: If a storm is coming, cruise ships just sail out of the way. This isn't to say that you'll never have a rainy day, but it does assure you that you will have a vacation. If you are headed to a a land-based vacation on a tropical island, and a hurricane is on the way (or worse yet, if you are already on the island), you may end up having to cancel your plans. On a cruise, however, your ship may change the itinerary, and you may visit some other ports than you planned, but chances are slim that you won't be going on your cruise at all.

Following are some links to the best weather and information sites that will help you find the current weather forecasts at ports you plan to visit, see what the normal weather is at your ports for the time you plan to visit, and sites that track major tropical storms and hurricanes. If you should find a link that's not working, or another site you know about that you think would make a good addition to our list, please send us an e-mail message and let us know. Please note "Cruise Weather Page" in the subject line. We're not trying to include every weather link here, just the best for cruise passengers. We appreciate your help in making our service even better.

Note: The weather data presented here and on the linked pages are intended to convey only general information on current storms and should not be used to make life or death decisions: the data may not be accurate. If you are in the path of a storm you should be listening to official information sources.

Active Storm Forecast Maps

Here are the latest forecast maps from NOAA of the expected storm paths, updated at least every six hours (more often for fast-moving storms). As cruise lines make itinerary changes to avoid the storms, we detail them on Cruiseblogger and update them on an ongoing basis as changes are release. 

There are currently no tropical storms affecting North American-based cruise ships.  

For cruise ships, there's more to a tropical storm or hurricane than the path and the eye that so many of the forecasts seem to focus on. These are huge storms that are hundreds of miles across. These links will give you a better idea. The links to the maps that show the wind field show the current area where there are hurricane force and tropical storm force winds are experienced. The links to the satellite image show you the entire area of cloud cover which goes farther and where the ship will experience rain and wind. The links to the path are still important, however, because that's where the entire system is moving. 

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Current Weather Forecasts for Ports
Tropical Storm Data Sites
Cruise News Daily Home

Tropical Storm Data:

Intellicast
This is just the latest satellite image of the area, but it shows the extent of the vast cloud cover that accompanies the hurricane, which is important if you are on a cruise and expecting sunny days. Caribbean   Atlantic   Pacific 

National Hurricane Center
This is the official government site with the official word. It has some of the best static maps that are large and clear available at the "Maps and Charts" link on the site for each storm. 

Tropical Storms Worldwide
This is an excellent site provided by the University of Hawaii. This site provides maps of current storm positions worldwide along with plots of their movement over the last several days and probability of strikes in a given area. The maps are clear, up-to-date, and fast loading (usually). For those of you who are into bells and whistles, this one may not be your favorite because there are no spinning animations or blinking dots. This site is one of the best (and fastest) we've found.

GoPBI.Com (Formerly: Storm 2000)
This site could also be called "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Storms." It's all here. Everything from detailed maps (names of places in the path - something most leave out - and distances from the eye), several map views, the projected path of the storm, even the latest audio updates. Looking ahead you can also check the names selected for the upcoming storms. The site is geared primarily for Caribbean storms, but the same extensive information is there for tropical storms on the Pacific coast, tornadoes and severe lightning, you just have to click on the links and dig down a little to find it.

Automated Storm & Hurricane Tracking Map
If you are into animation, this could be the site for you. It is Java enabled and will show you an animation of the path of the storm as well as the ever-popular spinning hurricane graphic. It has a good map if you don't mind waiting for it to load, but it doesn't give you much of the information you find on the two sites listed above.

Caribbean Hurricane Network
This is a site that gives you lots of tools for calculating where the storms will be as well as maps, definitions, explanations and first-hand reports all localized for the Caribbean islands.

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Forecast Maps for Active Storms
Current Weather Forecasts for Ports
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Current Weather & Forecasts

Weather Underground
This is the best site for weather information. It has virtually every major (and minor) city in the world. (It's not completely obvious, but start your visit by entering a city in the search box in the upper left corner.) For each city you can find not only the forecast for the next 7 days, but hourly weather for every day in the recent past (see the box that says "History & Almanac"), Seasonal Weather Averages (same box - handy for seeing what the weather will be like if you want to cruise there next spring), a historical average of temperatures and other types of weather data for any range of dates in the recent past (see the link that says "Trip Planner"), and even the local time and latitude and longitude (see the line right under the city name - handy for those with GPS devices). There's even a link that will place the city on a Google map for you. There is a wealth of information on each page (often hidden in the links), although it can be a little overwhelming. 

Alaska Weather
When you cruise to Alaska, weather is very important since most people are particularly interested in sightseeing outdoors. Since Alaska is a big place the weather will vary greatly from area to area. There's probably more information at this site about weather in Alaska than you'll ever want to know. These are the pages the Alaskans watch to check tomorrow's weather.

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Forecast Maps for Active Storms
Tropical Storm Data Sites
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