Calculating Distance Between Two Coordinates

Here is a Microsoft Excel formula for calculating distance between 2 coordinates...Remember, storms do not always follow the road your GPS says to take thus varying in how many miles distant from your location. Storms have their own 'highway'.

Nevertheless, this is a simple yet powerful example of how to build a large database of locations if you know their coordinates (which can be easily obtained from the Internet or your GPS).

We start by converting the lat-long coordinates in degrees to radians. Simply multiply the degrees by pi then divide by 180. Then use the formula below to calculate the distance, which will be given in kilometers. Convert to miles if you wish, taking kilometers and divide by 1.609.

I have a large database of locations, yet I cannot cover every single point in the state. But, if you have a GPS and have access to a particular location's coordinates, where say a severe thunderstorm is located, you can now calculate how far away the storm is from your location, not in highway miles but 'as the crow flies' miles.

The distance formula below is taken from cell C6...and since Fort Knox is a military installation, the coordinates are approximated for obvious security reasons and the simple fact that Fort Knox covers a vast amount of real estate.

=6367*ACOS((SIN(D3)*SIN(D4)+COS(D3)*COS(D4)*COS((E3)-E4)))

Also, see a sample screenshot of my StormChase Database in the next post, not the one below but a more comprehensive list. You may be surprised at how powerful your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet can really be.



     A               B                C              D                E

1                 STORMCHASE Database Screenshot
2	Lat	Long	La-Rads	Lo-Rads
3  Fort Knox	37.91	-85.94	0.6617	-1.4999
4ValleyStation	38.11	-85.84	0.6651	-1.4982
5
6 Distance (FK to VS)		23.89	km
		14.85	mi
MS