HURDAT
Encyclopedia
The North Atlantic hurricane database, or HURDAT, is the database for all tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean
, Gulf of Mexico
and Caribbean Sea
, since 1851.
's (NHC's) Webpage - has been utilized for a wide variety of uses: climatic change studies, seasonal forecasting, risk assessment for county emergency managers, analysis of potential losses for insurance and business interests, intensity forecasting techniques and verification of official and various model predictions of track and intensity.
HURDAT was not designed with all of these uses in mind when it was first put together and not all of them may be appropriate given its original motivation. HURDAT contains numerous systematic as well as some random errors in the database. Additionally, analysis techniques have changed over the years at NHC as their understanding of tropical cyclones has developed, leading to biases in the historical database. Another difficulty in applying the hurricane database to studies concerned with landfalling events is the lack exact location, time and intensity at hurricane landfall.
was upgraded to a Category 5. Recent efforts into uncovering undocumented historical hurricanes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries led by José Fernández-Partagás have greatly increased our knowledge of these past events, which are not yet incorporated into the HURDAT database. Because of all of these issues, a re-analysis of the Atlantic hurricane database is being attempted that will be completed in three years.
In addition to the groundbreaking work by Partagas, additional analyses, digitization and quality control of the data was carried out by researchers at the NOAA Hurricane Research Division funded by the NOAA Office of Global Programs. Over the next several years, this re-analysis will continue to progress through the remainder of the 20th Century.
Over 5000 additions and alterations are now approved for the 1851 to 1910 era by the National Hurricane Center's Best Track Change Committee. This work on historical hurricanes was originally conducted by the late Jose Fernandez Partagas. Additional analyses, digitization and quality control of the data was carried out by researchers at the NOAA Hurricane Research Division funded by NOAA Office of Global Programs.
Official changes to the Atlantic hurricane database are approved by the National Hurricane Center Best Track Change Committee. Thus research conducted by Chris Landsea and colleagues as part of the Atlantic hurricane database reanalysis project likewise goes through this review process. Not all Landsea's recommendations are accepted by the Committee.
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
and Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....
, since 1851.
History
The original database of six-hourly positions and intensities were put together in the 1960s in support of the Apollo space program to help provide statistical track forecast guidance. In the intervening years, this database - which is now freely and easily accessible on the Internet from the National Hurricane CenterNational Hurricane Center
The National Hurricane Center , located at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, is the division of the National Weather Service responsible for tracking and predicting weather systems within the tropics between the Prime Meridian and the 140th meridian west poleward to the 30th...
's (NHC's) Webpage - has been utilized for a wide variety of uses: climatic change studies, seasonal forecasting, risk assessment for county emergency managers, analysis of potential losses for insurance and business interests, intensity forecasting techniques and verification of official and various model predictions of track and intensity.
HURDAT was not designed with all of these uses in mind when it was first put together and not all of them may be appropriate given its original motivation. HURDAT contains numerous systematic as well as some random errors in the database. Additionally, analysis techniques have changed over the years at NHC as their understanding of tropical cyclones has developed, leading to biases in the historical database. Another difficulty in applying the hurricane database to studies concerned with landfalling events is the lack exact location, time and intensity at hurricane landfall.
Re-analysis Project
HURDAT has been updated significantly only twice before. The first time was in 2001 when data for years 1851 to 1885 were added to the database. The second time was August 2002 when Hurricane AndrewHurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew was the third Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States, after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Andrew was the first named storm and only major hurricane of the otherwise inactive 1992 Atlantic hurricane season...
was upgraded to a Category 5. Recent efforts into uncovering undocumented historical hurricanes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries led by José Fernández-Partagás have greatly increased our knowledge of these past events, which are not yet incorporated into the HURDAT database. Because of all of these issues, a re-analysis of the Atlantic hurricane database is being attempted that will be completed in three years.
In addition to the groundbreaking work by Partagas, additional analyses, digitization and quality control of the data was carried out by researchers at the NOAA Hurricane Research Division funded by the NOAA Office of Global Programs. Over the next several years, this re-analysis will continue to progress through the remainder of the 20th Century.
Over 5000 additions and alterations are now approved for the 1851 to 1910 era by the National Hurricane Center's Best Track Change Committee. This work on historical hurricanes was originally conducted by the late Jose Fernandez Partagas. Additional analyses, digitization and quality control of the data was carried out by researchers at the NOAA Hurricane Research Division funded by NOAA Office of Global Programs.
Official changes to the Atlantic hurricane database are approved by the National Hurricane Center Best Track Change Committee. Thus research conducted by Chris Landsea and colleagues as part of the Atlantic hurricane database reanalysis project likewise goes through this review process. Not all Landsea's recommendations are accepted by the Committee.
Data
There are seven files that make up the Re-Analysis project:- The revised Atlantic HURDAT: This contains six-hourly intensity (maximum sustained 1-minute winds at the surface [10 m] and, when available, central pressures) and position (to the nearest 0.1 degree latitude and longitude) estimates of all known tropical storms and hurricanes. This file also contains direction of movement in degrees and speed (mph and km/h).
- A HURDAT metafile: This documentation file has detailed information about each change in the revised HURDAT. Included are the original HURDAT values of position and/or intensity, the revised values in HURDAT, and the reasoning behind the changes. Format is in text form.
- A "center fix" file: A file has been created that is composed of raw observations of tropical cyclone positions (thus center fixes) and intensity measurements from either ships or coastal stations.
- A U.S. landfalling tropical storm and hurricane database: This file contains information on the exact time, location, intensity, radius of maximum winds (RMW), environmental sea level pressure and storm surge for continental U.S. landfalling (and those whose centers do not make landfall, but do impact land) tropical storms and hurricanes.
- NHC Best Track Change Committee comments: This file provides detailed comments from the NHC Best Track Change Committee - a group tasked with approving alterations to the HURDAT database. replies by the authors to the various comments and recommendations are also included.
- A Re-analysis of Hurricane Andrew's (1992) Intensity: This file contains thepreliminary estimates of Hurricane Andrew's intensities, the changes made in detail and the reasons why they were made.
- The San Diego Hurricane1858 San Diego HurricaneThe 1858 San Diego hurricane was a very rare California hurricane. It is the only known tropical cyclone to impact California as a hurricane, although other systems impacted California as tropical storms.-Meteorological history:...
of October 2, 1858: This file contains comprehensive information of a hurricane that directly impacted San Diego over 150 years ago. This includes data sources, newspaper accounts, observations and damage reports.
How to read
- Example - Tropical Depression 14 (1987)
- 11530 TD - Strength on SSHS
- 11540 :10/31/1987 :M= 5 7 :SNBR= 184 :XING=0 - Card number, Date of formation, the number of days the storm was above Tropical Disturbance strength for.
- 0000UTC 0600UTC 1200UTC 1800UTC
- Card No :Date :LONG(N) :LAT(W) Wind
- 11550 :10/31* 0 0 0 0*0 0 0 0*0 0 0 0*165 775 30 0*
- 11560 :11/1* 175 785 30 0*184 793 30 0*195 799 30 0*201 803 30 0*
- 11570 :11/2* 203 805 25 0*207 808 25 0*211 811 25 0*214 814 25 0*
- 11580 :11/3* 223 818 25 0*232 822 25 0*240 829 25 0*249 836 25 0*
- 11590 :11/4* 257 839 25 0*267 835 25 0*275 830 20 0*285 820 20 0*
- 11600 TD
- Key
- Long = Longitude in tenths of a degree west
- Lat= Latitude in tenths of a degree north
- Wind= Wind speed in Knots