HURDAT

HURDAT
Name	HURDAT
Type	dataset
Country	United States
Maintained by	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; National Hurricane Center; NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
First issued	1965
Languages	English
Format	text; CSV; digital

HURDAT

HURDAT is the primary Atlantic and eastern Pacific tropical cyclone track and intensity dataset used by National Hurricane Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, and international partners such as World Meteorological Organization, International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship, and regional agencies including Met Office and Servicio Meteorológico Nacional. The dataset underpins operational forecasting at National Hurricane Center and research at institutions like University of Miami, Florida State University, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and informs policy at agencies such as Federal Emergency Management Agency and United States Congress.

Overview

HURDAT provides a historical archive of tropical cyclone tracks, intensities, and ancillary metadata for basins used by National Hurricane Center and partners including Naval Research Laboratory, Air Force Weather Agency, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, and academic centers like Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The dataset is organized as time-stamped position and intensity entries that feed models developed at European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, National Center for Atmospheric Research, and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. HURDAT supports impact assessment by organizations such as American Red Cross, United States Geological Survey, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and insurance entities like Aon and Munich Re.

History and Development

The original HURDAT lineage traces to post-World War II efforts at United States Weather Bureau and later National Hurricane Center formalizations in projects involving Dr. Neil Frank, Dr. William Gray, Dr. Kerry Emanuel, and operational scientists from Naval Oceanographic Office and Air Force Hurricane Hunters. Major reanalyses occurred in collaboration with International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship and scholarly teams from University of Colorado Boulder, University of Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania State University, producing revised tracks influenced by historical archives such as International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set and reconnaissance records from Hurricane Hunters flights of United States Air Force and NOAA Aircraft Operations Center. Institutional milestones include methodological updates tied to meetings at American Meteorological Society and panels convened by World Meteorological Organization.

Data Content and Format

Entries in the dataset enumerate timestamps, geographic coordinates, maximum sustained wind estimates, central pressure records, and classification flags tied to scales like the Saffir–Simpson scale and warnings issued by National Hurricane Center and Joint Typhoon Warning Center. HURDAT files have historically been plain-text and comma-delimited for compatibility with tools used in labs at Columbia University, Princeton University, Yale University, and Johns Hopkins University. Metadata describe storm genesis, extratropical transitions, and landfall events relevant to case studies at Texas A&M University, Louisiana State University, University of Florida, and University of South Florida. Ancillary columns reference observational platforms including Drifting Buoy Program, National Data Buoy Center, Advanced Scatterometer, and GOES satellites maintained by NOAA and NASA.

Atlantic HURDAT vs. Pacific HURDAT-Pacific

The Atlantic archive maintained by National Hurricane Center and NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information covers the Atlantic hurricane season and is often compared with the eastern North Pacific archive managed jointly by National Hurricane Center and NOAA Pacific Services Center. Differences arise from historical reconnaissance campaigns by United States Air Force and NOAA Aircraft Operations Center in the Atlantic versus greater reliance on satellite-era analysis in the Pacific as developed by Naval Research Laboratory and European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. Basin-specific practices reflect coordination with regional agencies like Central Pacific Hurricane Center, Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, Meteorological Service of Canada, and international frameworks under World Meteorological Organization.

Uses and Applications

HURDAT underlies statistical climatologies at Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment centers and contributes to attribution studies by labs at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and National Center for Atmospheric Research. It supports hurricane risk modeling used by FEMA for planning, by private firms such as RMS, Inc. for exposure modeling, and by research teams at Imperial College London, University of Oxford, and ETH Zurich examining trends in tropical cyclone activity. The dataset informs disaster response planning by Department of Homeland Security, United States Coast Guard, and humanitarian organizations including International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Limitations and Revisions

Users must account for biases documented in studies from Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Climate, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, and analyses by researchers at NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and University of Miami Hurricane Research Division. Limitations include pre-satellite observational gaps, intensity estimation uncertainties, and homogenization issues tackled by reanalyses produced with input from International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and teams at Colorado State University. Revisions are periodically released after peer review and coordination with stakeholders including World Meteorological Organization, American Meteorological Society, and national meteorological services.

Category:Datasets