The Atlantic Hurricane Database Re-analysis Project is an effort 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 hurricanes and analysis techniques.

To receive email updates about progress in the Atlantic Hurricane Re-analysis Project, send an email to Chris Landsea.

August 2013 - A paper documenting the methodology, datasets, and results from the 1931 to 1943 Atlantic hurricane season reanalysis has been submitted to the Journal of Climate.

June 2013 - The Atlantic basin hurricane seasons of 1941 to 1945 have been officially reanalyzed. The revised database is available here. Four new tropical storms were discovered and added into the database for this five year period. Notable hurricanes in these years include the 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane, which affected North Carolina, the mid-Atlantic states, and New England, killing 390 people. This hurricane was downgraded from a Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale Category 3 at landfall in New York to a Category 2. Also in 1944 a late season Caribbean hurricane that struck Cuba causing 315 fatalities has been upgraded from a Category 3 to a Category 4 major hurricane at landfall. Additionally, in September 1945 a major hurricane struck Homestead, Florida - bearing many similarities in size, track, and impact to 1992's Hurricane Andrew - and was upgraded from a Category 3 to a Category 4 at landfall. Details of the data and methodology of the reanalysis is available here.

April 2013 - The 2013 Northeast and North Central Pacific Basin Tropical Cyclone Best Tracks have been finalized and made available in the Data page. A revised HURDAT 2 for this basin has been developed that includes asynoptic time data, landfalling data, wind radii data, and non-developing tropical depressions. Some minor typographical errors have been identified, corrected and noted in the Metadata files.

February 2013 - A new paper by Landsea and Franklin has just been published in Monthly Weather Review. This paper estimates the uncertainty (average error) for Atlantic Basin best track parameters through a survey of the Hurricane Specialists who maintain and update the Atlantic Hurricane Database. A comparison is then made with a survey conducted over a decade ago to qualitatively assess changes in the uncertainties. Finally, we discuss the implications of the uncertainty estimates for NHC analysis and forecast products as well as for the prediction goals of the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program.

February 2013 - The 2012 Atlantic basin tropical cyclone best tracks have been finalized and made available in the Data page.

1. Re-analysis results:
   1. Documentation for 1851 to 1910
   2. Documentation for 1911 to 1920
   3. Documentation for 1921 to 1930
   4. Documentation for 1931 to 1943 (Supplemental Information)
   5. Documentation for 1944 to 1953
   6. Data
2. How to submit changes to the HURDAT
3. Hurricane Andrew's Upgrade
4. Re-assessment of Hurricane Donna (1960) in Florida
5. U.S. Hurricane History by State (NWS sites)
6. HURDAT Reanalysis Related Publications
7. Publications of Chris Landsea

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