Terms of Use

Summary

These terms cover your use of tropicalrecon.com. In short:

• Free for non-commercial use. You may view, share and reuse the site's graphics and visualizations for personal, educational, research, media-reporting and other non-commercial purposes. You may do this as long as you credit Tropical Recon. See How to credit.
• No commercial use without permission. Selling, licensing or otherwise using the site's content for commercial purposes requires our written permission first.
• Not an official source. Nothing here is a forecast, warning or advisory. For decisions affecting life or property, follow the National Hurricane Center, your local National Weather Service office and local emergency officials.
• The data belongs to its sources. The observations shown come from NOAA, the U.S. Air Force Reserve, the National Hurricane Center, Black Swift Technologies and others. These terms don't restrict data that is public domain or covered by its provider's own terms. They cover what Tropical Recon adds.

By using the site you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use it.

What these terms cover

"The site" means tropicalrecon.com and everything served from it, including its pages and the data files its pages load. "Our content" means what Tropical Recon creates:

• graphics, maps, plots, Skew-T diagrams, timelines, replays and other visualizations, including screenshots and recordings of them;
• derived products and calculations, such as quality flags, smoothed tracks, computed quantities (for example θe, mean winds and extrapolated values) and combined or reformatted datasets;
• the site's text, design, layout and code.

"Source data" means the observations and products we obtain from other providers, as described on the Data Disclosure page.

Using the site

You may use the site to view and explore reconnaissance data for any lawful purpose. When you do:

• Use it at a reasonable pace. Don't overload the site. Don't scrape or download from it in bulk or in an automated way. Examples include polling its data files from a script or mirroring them. The site's data endpoints serve its own pages. They aren't a public API. If you need data in bulk, get it from the original provider, or ask us.
• Don't interfere with it. Don't try to break, probe or get around the site's security. Don't try to access parts of it that aren't meant for the public.
• Don't misrepresent it. Don't present the site's content as an official NOAA, National Hurricane Center or U.S. Air Force product. Don't suggest that any of them, or Tropical Recon, endorses you or your work.

Non-commercial use of our content

You may copy, share, adapt and republish our content for non-commercial purposes, as long as you:

1. Credit Tropical Recon as described under How to credit;
2. Say if you changed it (cropped, annotated, recolored, combined with other material), for example "adapted from Tropical Recon";
3. Don't remove credits, source notes, time stamps or "Prelim" and quality markings shown on a graphic, and don't alter a graphic in a way that changes what the data says.

Non-commercial purposes include personal use and teaching and classroom materials. They include academic research, theses and conference talks. They also include news reporting, weather discussion and social media posts. This includes posts by media organizations and on monetized channels, so long as you don't charge for or sell our content itself.

Commercial use

Commercial use of our content requires our written permission first. Commercial use includes, for example:

• selling or licensing our graphics, visualizations or derived products, or including them in anything that's sold (a product, report, app, subscription or dataset);
• using them in advertising, marketing or sponsored content;
• using them in consulting, forecasting or risk-assessment services provided for a fee;
• building a commercial service on the site or its data files, or using them to train or supply commercial models.

To ask for permission, contact us with what you'd like to use and how. Source data you obtain directly from its provider isn't restricted by these terms. Use it under that provider's own terms.

How to credit

Put the credit with the graphic. It can go in the caption, alt text or on the image. Where that isn't practical, put it alongside the graphic in the same post, page or document. Name the data source where the graphic shows one. For example:

Graphic: Tropical Recon (tropicalrecon.com), data from NOAA and the National Hurricane Center.

Tail Doppler Radar analysis visualized by Tropical Recon (tropicalrecon.com). Data: NOAA/AOML Hurricane Research Division.

In a short format such as a social media post, "via tropicalrecon.com" is enough. In research and publications, cite the original data provider for the data itself. Each source's preferred citation is on the Data Disclosure page. Also credit Tropical Recon for any of our graphics you reproduce.

Source data and third parties

Source data remains the property of its providers and is subject to their terms. Data collected by U.S. government agencies is generally in the public domain. Data from other providers, such as Black Swift Technologies, may carry their own conditions. These terms don't grant rights in source data beyond what its provider allows. They also don't limit rights you already have in public-domain data.

Tropical Recon is independent. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by NOAA, the National Hurricane Center, the National Weather Service, the U.S. Air Force or Black Swift Technologies. The site links to and loads material from other sites, such as map outlines and fonts. We aren't responsible for their content or terms.

No warranty

The site and everything on it is provided "as is" and "as available", for informational and educational purposes. Data may be delayed, incomplete, preliminary or wrong. This can come from the original source or from our processing. The site may be unavailable at any time. To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, including accuracy, completeness, timeliness, availability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Do not rely on this site for decisions affecting life, safety or property. Use official sources.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Tropical Recon and its operators won't be liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of, or inability to use, the site or its content, including direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages, even if we were told they were possible.

Changes and ending access

We may change the site or these terms at any time. The date at the top of this page shows when the terms last changed. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the new terms. We may limit or block access for anyone who breaks these terms or puts the site at risk.

Contact

For permission requests, questions about these terms, or to report a problem, email [email protected]. How we handle personal information is covered by our Privacy Policy.