Ventusky

Explore Historic Hurricanes, Including Helene (2024) and Irma (2017), on Ventusky

Hurricane Milton is now heading towards Florida. Two weeks ago, an extreme hurricane, Helene, caused widespread flooding and was one of the worst in history. On Ventusky, you can view not only the forecast, but also past hurricanes. Please note that historical data on Ventusky can only be viewed on desktop. It is not available on mobile. You can view historical data on Ventusky by changing the date in the lower right corner.

History
Viewing data from 2018 on Ventusky – change the date using the calendar on the desktop.

For Hurricane Helene, you can find almost every layer in our archive, including radar and satellite images that depict the storm's reality. Model data is also available - these are reanalyses that include observations and recalculations of conditions in other locations. They are very informative for determining where the storm made landfall and what values ​​it reached.

Satellite
Satellite image of Hurricane Helene from September 26 (2024)
Radar
A radar image of Hurricane Helene from September 27 (2024) when it made landfall

For Hurricane Helene, for example, the relevant weather data is from the end of September (see map). You can also explore data for other significant hurricanes, such as Hurricane Michael from October 2018 (see map), or Hurricane Irma from September 2017 (see map). These are the three strongest hurricanes to hit Florida in the past 30 years, and you can find them all in our archive.

Irma
Wind map during Hurricane Irma on September 10 (2017)

You can also link to archived data. However, to do this, you need to use the Share section, which you can find in the upper right corner. Here, you can generate a link that displays the exact date by adding the src=link parameter to the URL. This ensures that the date is not removed from the address. You can also embed our historical map into your website (see manual)

Comparing historical model data also makes sense for a better understanding of expected hurricanes. For example, here's a comparison of Hurricane Helene and the expected Milton before it made landfall.