I watch the models, I have a sense how they are built and watch for the things to unfold as they predict. When they don't unfold how they predict I comment on it. When they unfold how they predict I also comment on it.
I watch all the live satellite feeds and all the live data coming from the flights going in and out of the hurricane for the latest info and have been pretty religiously following this thing for the last 5 days and have a good feel at least how the models will move, or where they look to be moving and what they maybe missed.
I'm not a pro, 95% of what I say is aggregate information or mostly raw data as it becomes noteworthy.