When we were in class on Wednesday night, Hurricane Joaquin seemed to be headed straight for Virginia. I’m pretty well prepared, but I donated last year’s bottled water stash in the spring. So, on Thursday morning, I stopped at Target to stock up on bottled water which is now sitting in the hallway because I don’t have space for it.

The latest forecasts show that I didn’t really need to rush and buy water; Joaquin isn’t likely to reach the East Coast. But, thoughts of hurricanes inspired a map.

I mapped esri’s active hurricanes and recent hurricanes as well as hurricane tracks from historic hurricanes (in blue, from Maps.com) on top of a base map. Hurricane Joaquin’s path is shown in black, while the yellow dots represent the tracks of recent hurricanes. As you can see, we might be safe from Hurricane Joaquin, but (historically speaking) it’s only a matter of time until a hurricane does hit Virginia.

You can see the ArcGIS Online map here.

I think I’ll keep the water.