Two Useful Apps to Have on Your Phone Before a Hurricane Hits

(Dan Tri) - Storm No. 11 is preparing to make landfall in the northern region of our country. To proactively respond to the storm and minimize damage, below are two useful applications that you should have on your smartphone.

Since August, Vietnam has been hit by four storms that have made landfall. On October 6, storm No. 11 (storm Matmo) is also forecast to make landfall in the northern provinces and cities of our country, causing widespread heavy rain.

Heavy rains can cause flooding in low-lying areas; flash floods in small rivers and streams, and landslides on steep slopes.

Forecast of the movement of storm Matmo (Photo: Vietnam Disaster Monitoring System).

Below are two applications that provide information on the direction of movement, the area of ​​influence of storms and receive warnings about areas at risk of landslides, helping you proactively respond to storms, minimizing damage to people and property caused by storms.

Application to track and predict storm movement in real time

Before a storm makes landfall, many people are concerned about whether the storm's direction of movement and circulation will affect the area where they live.

To track and predict the direction of storm movement in real time as well as know the circulation of storms, users can use an application called Windy.

Windy   is a free application that displays weather conditions visually based on satellite images. The information displayed on Windy will help users clearly see the direction and circulation of storms. In particular, Windy also predicts the direction of storms visually on the map.

Windy is an intuitive and highly accurate weather forecast application, often used by professional skydivers, surfers... to capture information about weather and wind direction.

Android users can download the app for free here. iOS users can download the app here.

After installation and activation, you grant permission for the Windy application to determine the user's current location to help more accurately identify the area you live in.

The application also allows users to set parameters to use when forecasting the weather, such as temperature units, wind speed units. Select the corresponding unit and press the "Finish" button in the dialog box that appears.

Location of storm Matmo shown on Windy app map (Screenshot).

To find out about the forecast of this storm's movement, you click and select the time frame on the time slider below the application interface, immediately the predicted location of the storm at the selected time will be displayed on the application interface.

To see more clearly the forecast of the storm's movement direction, you can press the "Play" button in the lower left corner (triangle icon), the application will immediately display the predicted path of this storm on the map according to each time point, thereby helping you know which direction the storm will move and where it will land in our country.

Forecast of movement direction and rainfall range of storm Matmo ( Video : QH).

The Windy app is not only essential for those who live in areas where hurricanes make landfall, but also useful for those who want to pay attention to the direction of the storm's movement or want to know if their area is experiencing heavy rain caused by the storm's circulation.

Application warns of landslide and flash flood risk areas in real time

Storms and storm circulations always cause heavy rain over a wide area. Heavy rain not only causes flooding, the risk of flash floods but can also lead to landslides, causing serious consequences for both property and people.

To proactively respond to the risk of landslides, especially in mountainous areas, Prof. Dr. Do Minh Duc, Faculty of Geology, University of Science , Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and colleagues have developed an application called "Vietnam Landslide".

The application integrates artificial intelligence and big data, based on weather conditions, rainfall... to give warnings.

The application is currently available on both Android and iPhone smartphones. To install the application, you access the Google Play app store (for Android) or App Store (for iPhone), search for the keyword “Vietnam Landslide” and install the application on your device.

After installation, the first time you launch the app, it will ask the user for permission to access the device's location, which will allow the app to issue warnings if the area you live in is at high risk of landslides or flash floods.

After pressing the location access permission button, press the "Allow" button to have the application send a warning to your smartphone when there is a risk of landslides or flash floods.

Click on the “OK” button in the next dialog box, select “Vietnam Landslide” in the list and select “Always allow” to grant the application location access.

After completing the setup steps, the application interface will display areas at risk of landslides and divide them into different levels, in which areas with yellow triangles mean medium risk, red is high risk and purple is very high risk.

Application warns of the risk of widespread landslides when storm No. 5 (storm Kajiki) makes landfall in Vietnam at the end of August (Screenshot).

Notably, the application also predicts the risk of landslides and flash floods in the next 3 hours, depending on rainfall and weather conditions.

In case the area you live in is at high risk of landslides, the application will also send a notification to the user's smartphone to warn.

Based on the information and warnings provided by the application, you can know whether the area you live in is at risk of landslides or not and whether this risk will increase or decrease in the next 3 hours, thereby having a plan to move to a safe place, to prevent possible landslide accidents.

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Above are two useful applications that users should have on their smartphones, not only helping individuals and families be safer but also contributing to reducing losses to the community.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/cong-nghe/hai-ung-dung-huu-ich-can-co-tren-dien-thoai-truoc-khi-bao-do-bo-20251004065418424.htm