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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.
What's NewFebruary 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.December 2012 - A reanalysis of the 1936 to 1940 hurricane seasons has been conducted. All of the existing 46 tropical storms and hurricanes were revised (one of which - original storm #7 in 1938 - was removed from the database as it was extratratropical throughout its lifetime). Additionally, seven new tropical storms (three of which reached hurricane intensity) were discovered and added into the database. The biggest impact hurricane of these five seasons was, by far, the Great New England hurricane of 1938. This cyclone was retained as a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale at its landfall in New York and New England, though the peak sustained winds at landfall in New York were increased from 85 kt (100 mph) in the original database to 105 kt (120 mph) in the revision. November 2012 - A revised HURDAT2 (Atlantic hurricane database) format has been developed that includes asynoptic time data, landfalling data, wind radii data, and non-developing tropical depressions. The original HURDAT format will be retired after the 2012 Atlantic hurricane database becomes available. July 2012 - Two peer-reviewed papers from the reanalysis project have just been published in the July 2012 edition of the Journal of Climate. In Hagen et al., documentation is provided on the methodology, original observations available, and preliminary reanalysis results obtained for 1944-1953. This is the first decade of aircraft reconnaissance for the Atlantic basin. Hagen and Landsea investigate how improvements in observing capabilities and technology may have affected our ability to detect and monitor Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic basin during the mid-twentieth century.
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