real time web site workflow

I am a PhD student in flood management, I am a beginner in development (Intermediate level in Python) I would like to develop a web site with "live" and an "archive" pages. The archive page will contain flood maps for past years (The idea is for a user to select a storm and a google map pops with flooded area). The "live" side will show all the active storms in real-time by retrieving the real-time measures from gauges (other servers).

I would be happy if you give me some first guidelines (recommendations, convenient programming language, different components that I will need, things to learn to start…) Thank you very much!