Around this time every year, hurricane forecast maps pop up all over television and the internet, but your friendly neighborhood weatherman rarely has enough time to explain the forecasts to you. Here's what those hurricane forecast maps mean.
Every hurricane forecast map includes a legend that tells viewers crucial facts about the storm. The most important facts in the legend are usually the wind speed and direction of movement. The wind speed tells you the strongest sustained wind within the storm — in this case, Bertha had 50 MPH winds at the 2PM advisory. That doesn't mean that the winds are 50 MPH throughout the entire storm, just in the strongest part.
