The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently unveiled a new web site that allows you to explore 150 years of information about tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea.

The web site is www.csc.noaa.gov/hurricane_tracks. You can search the database using the name of the storm, or by requesting various states, counties, and zip codes, or by latitude and longitude. Side by side, you can also look at population changes over the last century for coastal counties. And there's a detailed report on the history and impact of every Atlantic tropical storm or hurricane in the last 40 years.

I found this a very unique web site because it brings together weather and societal information in a way that's understandable and relevant to a wide range of users - from professional meteorologists and emergency management officials to retirees considering a move to the coast.