170 Years of the World’s Hurricane Tracks on One Dark and Stormy Map

[Are_grits_groceries]

This map shows the paths of every hurricane and cyclone detected since 1842. Nearly 12,000 tropical cyclones have been tracked and recorded, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration keeps them all in a single database. Long-term datasets can be really interesting and scientifically valuable, and this one is undoubtedly both.

In the image above, you can clearly see that more storm tracks have overlapped in the western Pacific ocean and northern Indian ocean. This is largely because of the length of the typhoon season, which basically never stops in the warmer waters there.

The tracks of the earliest storms are based on mariner’s logs and storm records, collected from various countries, agencies and other sources. Reconciling data from these different entities was tough. Most international agencies had their own set of codes for cyclone intensity, and only recorded this information once per day. India was even using different wind thresholds to designate cyclone stages.

Somehow, NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center managed to wrangle all these various reports. Originally, at the dawn of the mainframe computer age, much of this data was stored in the form of decks of punch cards, sometimes with just one position and intensity measurement for one storm recorded on each card. Later systems used 80-column cards to boost this to four measurements per card. A similar tracking system is still in use today, of course without the physical cards.
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http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/hurricane-tracks/

Great map!

[oldandhappy]

1. This is fascinating.

Thank you. I like this kind of information.

[nolabear]

2. Eerily beautiful.

Thanks.

[burrowowl]

3. Be interesting

to see how climate change will shift the patterns.

[dmr]

4. Fasinating

The one on the right kinda looks like the Cookie Monster on a bad day.

Seriously, though, thanks for posting this, and as the article says: "Long-term datasets can be really interesting and scientifically valuable, and this one is undoubtedly both."