Understanding the devastating power of a hurricane can be difficult without having had the first-hand experience of living through one.

Now a US TV station has deployed new graphic technology to visually portray the horrific effects a tropical storm can wreak, as Hurricane Florence rolls towards the American coast.

Mixed reality graphics created by The Weather Channel in tandem with augmented reality company The Future Group show water levels rising – and rising, and rising – as a TV metereologist explains what people can expect.

As they relay the forecast, wind howls and parked cars end up bobbing in more than 2.5 metre-high water.

The stations hopes that the graphic depictions of storm damage will go some way towards encouraging people to heed storm warning instructions when they come.

“The business that we're in is safety,” The Weather Channel’s vice president of design said.

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