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ATLANTIC HURRICANE
RE-ANALYSIS PROJECT


Picture from "Florida's Hurricane History" by Jay Barnes

Principal Investigator: Chris Landsea

Collaborating scientist(s):
Noel Charles
Jason Dunion
Steve Feuer
John Gamache
Charles Newman (SAIC)
Mark Zimmer (FIU)
Gilbert Clark (FIU)

Link to full Project description

Objective:
The Atlantic Hurricane Database Re-analysis Project is an effort led by the Hurricane Research Division to extend and revise the National Hurricane Center's North Atlantic hurricane database (or HURDAT). Going back to 1851 and revisiting storms in more recent years, information on tropical cyclones is revised using an enhanced collection of historical meteorological data in the context of today's scientific understanding of hurricane and analysis techniques.
Goals:
The primary goal for this project is to provide an extended and corrected Atlantic hurricane database of individual tropical cyclone tracks and intensities for both the entire Atlantic basin as well as U.S. landfalling storms. This fits in well with the goals of NOAA and HRD to better understand variability of extreme events, such as tropical storms.
Rationale:
HURDAT contains many systematic and random errors which need to be corrected. Additionally, as our understanding of tropical cyclones has developed, analysis techniques have changed over the years at NHC, leading to biases in the historical database that have not been addressed.Ê Another difficulty in applying the hurricane database to studies concerned with landfalling events is the lack of exact location, time and intensity information at landfall. Finally, recent efforts into uncovering undocumented historical hurricanes in the late 1800s and early 1900s led by Jose Fernandez-Partagas have greatly increased our knowledge of these past events, which had not been incorporated into the HURDAT database. Because of these many issues, a re-analysis of the Atlantic hurricane database is needed.

Method:
Hurricane re-analysis requires the collection of all available original storm "raw" observations (ships, land stations, buoys, research and reconnaissance aircraft, radar and satellites), then addressing them in the context of today's best scientific understanding and analysis techniques. This allows for adjustment of the existing track and intensity estimates as well as occassionally adding a new tropical storm or hurricane to the database that was not previously recognized as being a tropical cyclone.
Accomplishments:
  • A major accomplishment in 2001 was the inclusion of the Fernandez-Partagas work for the years 1851-1885 into the database. Documentation, Data, and References for this work can be found by clicking on the word.
  • In 2002, Hurricane Andrew was upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane striking south Florida. Revisions for the 1886 to 1910 time period that Fernandez-Partagas analyzed are nearly complete and are awaiting final approval by the National Hurricane Center.
Milestones:
  • Submit "A Re-analysis of Hurricane Andrew (1992)" to Monthly Weather Review by April 2003
  • Plans for 2002 through 2005 are to complete the re-analysis from 1911 through recent years. Such revisions will be made sequentially and in yearly increments. To receive email updates about progress in the Atlantic Hurricane Re-analysis Project, send an email to Chris Landsea.
    1. Complete re-analysis for 1911-1940 by January 2004
    2. Complete re-analysis for 1941-1970 by January 2005
    3. Complete re-analysis for 1971-2002 by January 2006

Resources:
The Atlantic Hurricane Re-analysis Project is supported by a NOAA Climate and Global Change Program grant from 2002 through 2005.

Key references:
  • Dunion,J.P. , C.W.Landsea, and S.H.Houston (2003) "A re-analysis of the surface winds for Hurricane Donna of 1960" Accepted by Mon. Wea. Review
  • Landsea,C.W. C.Anderson, N.Charles, G.Clark, J.Dunion, J.Partagas, P.Hungerford, C. Neumann, and M.Zimmer (2003) "The Atlantic hurricane database re-analysis project : Documentation for the 1851-1910 alterations and additions to the HURDAT database" Hurricanes and Typhoons : Past, Present, and Future R.J.Murnane and K.-B. Liu Editors, Columbia University Press Accepted and revised for publication

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Last modified: 11/20/2002
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