The amateur tropical forecasting toolkit has never been better. Model access that used to cost enterprise contracts is now free or near-free. Radar compositing tools that required professional software now run in a browser. AI-based global models from NOAA, Google, and NVIDIA are generating output accessible to anyone with a laptop.
What hasn't kept pace: the publishing layer. The tools that let serious tropical enthusiasts actually share their analysis as structured, verifiable forecasts with permanent URLs and an audience.
This guide covers both — the data and analysis side, and the publishing side that most amateurs are still missing.
Data & Analysis Tools
Tropical Tidbits (tropicaltidbits.com)
What it is: The best free tropical weather analysis platform available. Clean interface, fast loading, comprehensive model coverage for tropical systems.
Key features:
- All major models: GFS, ECMWF, Euro ensemble, HWRF, HAFS, ICON, NAM
- Soundings, skew-T diagrams for key tropical soundings
- Hurricane track cone tool — lets you plot your own track prediction visually
- SHIPS rapid intensification indices — RI is the #1 underforecast risk in tropical meteorology; this guide explains what the SHIPS model is actually reading and why models routinely miss rapid deepening events
- NHC track + intensity guidance comparison tool
Why it matters for amateur forecasters: Tropical Tidbits' track cone tool is where most amateur forecasters build their track analysis. It's genuinely excellent for constructing a track prediction.
The gap: Once you've drawn your track cone in Tropical Tidbits, you can screenshot it. That's your only output. There's no way to publish it as a structured forecast with your name attached, no subscriber notification system, no verification after the event.
Tropical Tidbits is the analysis workstation. ForecasterHQ is the publishing layer you use after you've done your analysis there.
NOAA ATCF (Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecasting System)
What it is: The raw data behind NHC's official track forecasts. Public access through NOAA's data servers.
Key features:
- Best track data for all historical Atlantic and Pacific storms
- Real-time operational guidance from global models
- Intensity and track data for all currently active storms
Why it matters: Best track data lets you build your own accuracy analysis over multiple seasons. If you've been making calls and want to compare your archive against actual best tracks, ATCF is the source.
Windy (windy.com)
What it is: Global weather visualization with multi-model support. Heavy on wind and wave data, useful for examining the large-scale flow environment around a tropical system.
Key features:
- ECMWF, GFS, ICON, plus ensemble visualizations
- Wave height, sea surface temperature
- Strong interface for understanding the steering environment
Limitations: Recent aggressive price hikes have generated significant backlash. The free tier has been progressively gutted. The 850mb steering level and SST layers that are most useful for tropical analysis are premium features.
Bottom line: Useful for environmental analysis. Not essential if you're already using Tropical Tidbits — there's significant overlap.
NOAA AIGFS / AI Weather Models
What it is: NOAA's AI-based global forecast system, running in parallel with GFS. Also relevant: Google's WeatherNext, NVIDIA Earth-2.
Why it's new this season: 2026 is the first hurricane season where AI-based global models are generating operationally relevant output for tropical systems. Early validation suggests they're competitive with ensemble guidance at medium range for tropical track prediction.
How to access:
- NOAA AIGFS: Available through the same NOMADS data servers as GFS
- WeatherNext: Google Cloud Vertex AI (free tier available)
- NVIDIA Earth-2 models: Available on HuggingFace
For tropical forecasting specifically: AI models tend to do well on large-scale steering. Track consensus across multiple AI models adds useful ensemble spread information. Intensity guidance from AI models is less mature — treat with appropriate skepticism.
Radar Tooling
RadarScope: The gold standard for high-resolution radar for storm-level tropical analysis. Level III and super-resolution Level II data, velocity products, dual-pol moments. iOS/Android. ~$9.99/year for the base version, ~$29.99/year for Pro with 3D radar and archived data. Worth it for serious weather enthusiasts.
NOAA's Weather.gov radar: Free, browser-based, good enough for basic tracking. Use RadarOmega or GR2Analyst if you need deeper Level II analysis on desktop.
College of DuPage NEXLAB: Free browser tool for multi-sensor mosaics and loop control. Useful for tracking outer band organization.
Forecast Verification & Research
NHC Archive (nhc.noaa.gov)
NOAA maintains comprehensive archives of all NHC advisories, track forecasts, and best track data going back decades. Invaluable if you're doing your own forecast verification over multiple seasons.
For real-time comparison: NHC publishes official track and intensity forecasts at every advisory cycle. Comparing your track cone against NHC's forecast before each advisory is how you calibrate your own model interpretation.
ForecasterHQ Sounding Viewer (/sounding)
ForecasterHQ's free Skew-T Log-P sounding viewer renders atmospheric soundings from standard pressure-level model data. For tropical forecasting, 850mb and 500mb soundings through the storm's core are useful for evaluating instability profiles and shear environments.
No account required. Available at forecasterhq.com/sounding.
The Publishing Layer: Where Most Amateurs Are Leaving Value on the Table
Most serious amateur tropical forecasters have the data tools covered. What they almost universally lack is a publishing workflow that:
- Records their forecast in structured form before the event
- Makes it shareable at a permanent URL with a map
- Notifies their email subscribers when they publish
- Verifies their predictions against observations after the storm
Without all four of those, your track record exists only in your memory and in the forensic archaeology of your social media posts. That's not a track record. It's a history.
ForecasterHQ
What it does for tropical forecasters:
- Map-based forecast publishing — draw your impact zones (landfall zone, outer rainband zone, surge zone, inland flooding zone) as polygons with your specific wind/rain/surge range per zone
- Permanent forecast URLs — your call lives at a shareable link that you can post, embed in a blog, or link from your social profile
- Subscriber notifications — email your list when you publish without needing Mailchimp or Substack
- Post-storm verification — after the event, NWS observation data is matched against your drawn regions and your accuracy is shown publicly on your profile
How it fits in the toolkit: Use Tropical Tidbits + AI models for analysis. Use ForecasterHQ to publish your call in structured form before the storm makes landfall. See the step-by-step walkthrough: how to publish a hurricane track forecast.
Free to start. No credit card. Sign up at forecasterhq.com
Building Your Credibility Before June 1
The forecasters who build the largest tropical audiences don't get there by making good calls on one hurricane. They build it by consistently publishing structured forecasts across a full season — and being honest about the ones that missed.
Hurricane season 2026 starts June 1. The window to set up your tools and publish your first pre-season analysis is now. An August storm that you nail is worth more audience-building-wise if you've already got a season of published forecasts showing your methodology.
Here's a practical pre-season checklist:
- Set up your ForecasterHQ profile — create your forecaster page, upload a photo, write your bio
- Get comfortable with the map builder — publish a practice forecast using a named storm from last season to understand the workflow
- Connect your social accounts — link your ForecasterHQ profile from your X, YouTube, and Facebook accounts so new forecasts drive traffic; browse ForecasterHQ Discover to see how other forecasters have set up their pages
- Build your email list — start capturing emails from followers before the season; those subscribers are more valuable than social followers when a storm is bearing down on their area
Start publishing your tropical forecasts on ForecasterHQ. Start publishing — it's free → — takes less than two minutes to set up.