Coastal Services Center

The data are not released by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) until early in the year following the end of each hurricane season, so the data cannot be updated in the Historical Hurricane Tracks tool until then. For example, data from the 2008 season will not be available in the tool until approximately March-April 2009. The bad news is that it takes a while. The good news, however, is that once the data are loaded into the tool, you can be assured that they are the best available track data, developed and released under strict quality assurance and control guidelines of the NHC in Miami, Florida.

"Hurricane return periods" refer to the frequency with which a certain intensity or category of hurricane can be expected within 75 nautical miles (86 statute miles) of a given location. In other words, a return period of 20 years for a Category 3 or greater hurricanes means that on average during the previous 100 years, a Category 3 or greater hurricane passed within 75 nautical miles of that location about five times. We would then expect, on average, an additional five Category 3 or greater hurricanes within that radius over the next 100 years. Return period maps for select U.S. coastal locations and actual historical coastal county hurricane strike maps are available, as is a Microsoft Excel strike spreadsheet (from the National Hurricane Center).

Information about storm size (i.e., radius of maximum winds or 4-quadrant wind radii) is not available in the Historical Hurricane Tracks tool. However, there is at least one publicly available dataset that includes such information. The “extended best track dataset” is NHC’s regular best track appended with some wind structure parameters. The Atlantic file includes 1988-2007/8 and the East Pacific file includes 2001-2007. The extended best track dataset file and a description of the file are available.

Yes. There are two ways you can get the data. If you want the full dataset for the Atlantic or the Eastern North Pacific Basins, you can go directly to the download page. If you want only the tracks of the storms that matched a query you made using the mapping tool, then click the “download data” button above the map once tracks have been returned and are shown in the map. The button is the last one on the right above the map.

The Identify tool in the ArcIMS portion of this site (Query Storm Tracks) gives the storm's "best track" pressure/winds from the previous advisory. That is, if you use the identify tool to view the 5:00 a.m. position, the 2:00 a.m. data are displayed below the map since the 2:00 a.m. was when the last advisory was issued. Although the National Hurricane Center's Tropical Cyclone Reports contain specific information regarding landfall intensity, the best track database, presently does not. This difference can, in some instances, result in misinformation. For example, if you use the Identify tool on the Hurricane Andrew (1992) track around the landfall time of 5:00 a.m., you will get 2:00 a.m. information, which does not indicate the landfall pressure or maximum winds. With this in mind, when making assumptions about specific landfall intensities, users are strongly encouraged to view the storm's tropical cyclone report, available from the National Hurricane Center's website or at this website under Tropical Cyclone Reports.

If you were expecting to see a particular storm returned by your query but did not, you might try increasing the search radius around your location (using 'Distance' in the storm parameter options). Storms are shown simply as lines in the tool, which represent only the track of the known or estimated center of each storm. Since storms actually vary in size, it is possible that the center of your storm of interest passed just outside the extent of the search radius/buffer (even though your area may have experienced hurricane conditions from the storm). By simply increasing the search distance (defaulted to 65 nautical miles), you will increase the likelihood that you will see the storm returned by your query. The way the tool works is by considering the location you selected and drawing a buffer around that location with the size of the buffer determined by “Distance” in the storm parameter selection options. The tool then does an “intersect” between the tracks of all storms meeting your chosen criteria and the buffer. Only those storms whose tracks intersect the buffer will be returned.

Yes. Depending on what you are looking for, there are several options. The NOAA National Hurricane Center offers at least three historical hurricane tracks posters you can download (with high-resolution versions available). The NOAA National Climatic Data Center also offers several historical hurricane maps, most of which are available via their “Historical Significant Events Imagery” web page.