Atlantic edit

During 1959 a technical paper was published by the United States Weather Bureau, which consolidated several sources of records in to a single publication.[1] These sources included annual summaries that had been published in the Monthly Weather Review at various times since 1922, unpublished materials from the Hurricane forecast offices and other studies on hurricanes and hurricane climatology back to around 1886.[1] While combining the sources, position errors of over 100 miles (160 km)* were found for several hurricanes shown in more than one source.[1] Therefore, the positions of all of the systems that were considered to have tropical characteristics, were compared with the historical weather maps of the daily synoptic series.[1] The most reliable positions and intensities were then plotted on a series of annual track charts, before being reviewed by the hurricane forecast centres, Extended Forecast Section and the National Hurricane Research Project.[1] The most accurate and consistent locations from the reviews were then plotted on the maps and published.[1]

Eastern Pacific edit

The Eastern Pacific best track database was initially compiled on magnetic tape in 1976 for the seasons between 1949 and 1975, at the NHC to help with the development of two tropical cyclone forecast models, which required tracks of past cyclones as a base for its predictions.[2][3] The database was based on records held by the United States Navy and were interpolated from 12 hourly intervals to 6 hourly intervals based on a scheme devised by Hiroshi Akima in 1970.[4][5] Initially tracks for the Central Pacific region and tracks for tropical depressions that did not develop into tropical storms or hurricanes were not included within the database.[5] After the database had been created Arthur Pike of the NHC made some internal adjustments, while in 1980 a review was made by Arnold Court under contract from the United States National Weather Service and resulted in additions and/or modifications to 81 tracks in the database.[4][6] Between 1976 - 1987, the NHC archived best track data from the Eastern Pacific Hurricane Center (EPHC), and in 1982 started including information on Central Pacific tropical storms and hurricanes started to be included in the database based on data from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and research done by Samuel Shaw of the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) in 1981.[2][4] The format of the database was completely revised by the NHC during 1984, so that the format could resemble the Atlantic database before they took over the warning responsibility from the EPHC for the Eastern Pacific during 1988.[4][6][7] During 2008 and 2013 several revisions were made to the database to extend tracks in land, based on reports in the Mariners Weather Log and extrapolation of the tracks since the EPHC stopped issuing advisories on systems before they made landfall.[8] The archives format was significantly changed during 2013 to include non-synoptic best track times, non-developing tropical depressions and wind radii.[9]

Central Pacific edit

Western Pacific edit

North Indian Ocean edit

Southern Hemisphere edit

South-West Indian Ocean edit

Australian region edit

South Pacific edit

Speartc edit

IBTRACS edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f Cry, George W; Haggard, William S; White, Hugh S (1959). North Atlantic Tropical Cyclones Tracks and Frequencies of Hurricanes and Tropical Storms 1886-1958 (PDF). Office of Climatology (Technical Paper 36). United States Weather Bureau. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original on March 7, 2015. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  2. ^ a b Neumann, Charles J; Leftwhich, Preston W (August 1977). Statistical Guidance for the Prediction of Eastern North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Motion — Part I (PDF) (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS WR-124). United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service — Western Region. p. 14. Archived from the original on July 27, 2013. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
  3. ^ Brown, Gail M; Leftwhich, Preston W; National Hurricane Center (August 1982). A Compilation of Eastern and Central North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Data (PDF) (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS NHC 16). United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service. Archived from the original on July 27, 2013. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d Blake, Eric S; Gibney, Ethan J; Brown, Daniel P; Mainelli, Michelle; Franklin, James L; Kimberlain, Todd B; Hammer, Gregory R (2009). Tropical Cyclones of the Eastern North Pacific Basin, 1949-2006 (PDF). Archived from the original on July 28, 2013. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  5. ^ a b Leftwhich, Preston W; Brown, Gail M (February 1981). Eastern North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Occurrences during Intra Seasonal Periods (PDF) (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS WR-160). United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service — Western Region. pp. 2–3. Archived from the original on July 28, 2013. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
  6. ^ a b Davis, Mary A.S.; Brown, Gail M; Leftwhich, Preston W; National Hurricane Center (September 1984). A Tropical Cyclone Data Tape for the Eastern and Central North Pacific Basins, 1949-1983: Contents, Limitations, and Uses (PDF) (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS NHC 25). United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service. pp. 2–3. Archived from the original on July 28, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
  7. ^ Sheets, Robert C (June 1990). "The National Hurricane Center — Past, Present, and Future" (PDF). Weather and Forecasting. 5 (2): 197. doi:10.1175/1520-0434(1990)005<0185:TNHCPA>2.0.CO;2. ISSN 1520-0434.
  8. ^ National Hurricane Center (April 2015). Revisions made to EPAC HURDAT (Report). United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  9. ^ Landsea, Christopher W; Franklin, James L; Blake, Eric S; Tanabe Raymond (April 2013). The revised Northeast and North Central Pacific hurricane database (HURDAT2) (PDF) (Report). United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service. p. 1. Archived from the original on July 28, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2013.