Tropical Cyclones
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain. They form over warm tropical or subtropical waters and derive their energy from the evaporation of water from the ocean surface, which then condenses to form clouds and rain when it reaches cooler air. Tropical cyclones are classified based on their intensity, with tropical depression being the weakest form and hurricane (in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific), typhoon (in the Northwest Pacific), or cyclone (in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean) being the strongest form.
A tropical cyclone is one of nature's most powerful and destructive forces. Storms, including tropical cyclones and hurricanes, were second only to earthquakes in terms of fatalities, killing 233, 000 people. In the United States, tropical cyclone is the most costly type of natural hazard. Between 1980 and 2002, tropical cyclones caused $1,333.6 billion in damage, with an average cost of $22.2 billion per event -- the highest average event cost among all natural hazard types[1].
This article talks about the change in tropical cyclone with climate change. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2023-historic-year-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters
Impacts
The primary hazards from tropical cyclones (which include tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes) are storm surge flooding, inland flooding from heavy rains, destructive winds, tornadoes, and high surf and rip currents[2][3].
- Storm surge is the abnormal rise in water level caused by a storm's winds, which can exceed 20 feet in height and extend across hundreds of miles of coastline. When combined with the astronomical tide, this rise in water level is known as storm tide. Storm surge can push several miles inland, particularly along bays, rivers, and estuaries. The immense power of storm surge, coupled with large, battering waves, can lead to loss of life, destruction of buildings, erosion of beaches and dunes, and damage to roads and bridges along the coast. Historically, storm surge has been the leading cause of hurricane-related deaths in the United States. You may refer to CRL's storm surge wiki page for more detail.
- Inland flooding from heavy rainfall is the second leading cause of fatalities from landfalling tropical cyclones. Tropical cyclones often bring widespread, torrential rains exceeding 6 inches, which can lead to deadly and destructive floods. Such flooding can continue for several days even after the storm has dissipated. The amount of rainfall is not directly tied to the strength of a tropical cyclone but is influenced by the storm's speed, size, and the geography of the affected area. Slower-moving and larger storms tend to produce more rainfall, and mountainous terrain can further intensify rainfall from a tropical cyclone.
- Winds from a hurricane can destroy buildings and manufactured homes. Debris, such as signs, roofing material, and other items left outside can become flying missiles during hurricanes. Winds can stay above hurricane strength well inland. In 2004, Hurricane Charley made landfall at Punta Gorda on the southwest Florida coast and produced major damage well inland across central Florida with gusts of more than 100 mph.
- Tornadoes can accompany landfalling tropical cyclones. These tornadoes typically occur in rain bands well away from the center of the storm; however, they can also occur near the eyewall. Usually, tornadoes produced by tropical cyclones are relatively weak and short-lived, but they still pose a significant threat.
- The powerful waves produced by a tropical cyclone's strong winds can pose a significant hazard to coastal residents and mariners. When these waves break along the coast, they can produce deadly rip currents which can pull even the strongest swimmers away from shore. These waves can also cause significant beach erosion and damage to coastal structures, even at a large distance (e.g. more than 1000 miles) from the storm.
Dataset
Historical Data
| Dataset | Description | Map viewer link | Data access link |
|---|---|---|---|
| HURDAT | A database for tropical cyclone historical data released by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). It is a detailed post-storm analysis of each tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin and the North Pacific Ocean. It includes six-hourly updates on various aspects such as location (latitude, longitude), maximum winds, and central pressure of all known tropical and subtropical cyclones, Since 2004, the database also includes data on the size of these cyclones. This database is regularly updated as new analyses are reviewed. Other NHC data archive can be found here. | Access | |
| HURSAT | Tropical Cyclone-centric satellite data in gridded netCDF format | Access | |
| IBTrACS | International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) project is the most complete global collection of tropical cyclones available. It merges recent and historical tropical cyclone data from multiple agencies to create a unified, publicly available, best-track dataset that improves inter-agency comparisons. | View | Access |
Real-time monitoring
Accessing the Data
- Database for Policy Decision Making for future climate change https://www.coast.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/d4PDF/index_en.html A large ensemble of climate simulations at 60-km resolution and dynamically downscaled to 20 km. It is designed for climate change risk assessments in various research areas such as natural hazard, hydrology, civil engineering, agriculture, health, and insurance.[4] Download
- National hurricane center: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/102341.shtml?cone#contents USGS Hurricane resources: https://www.usgs.gov/hurricanes
- flooding and storm surge associated with storms will also impact nonindigenous aquatic species https://nas.er.usgs.gov/viewer/Flooding/
- Hurricane impacts on agriculture: a lot of financial loss data https://www.ers.usda.gov/newsroom/trending-topics/hurricane-impacts-on-agriculture/
- National Hurricane center[5]has a lot of useful information regarding the current hurricanes, including forecast of rainfall, storm surge forecast associated the hurricane
- Historical hurricane tracks https://coast.noaa.gov/hurricanes/#map=4/32/-80
- The deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones from 1492 to 1996: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdeadlyapp1.shtml?.
Ocean data
- Daily OISST by NCEI: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/optimum-interpolation-sst
Damage and Loss
- Hurricane Debby damage assessment aerial imagery: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/aug24/ngs-storm-imagery-debby.html
Others
- National hurricane center includes a lot of useful information, including climatology, types of damage due to hurricane winds of each category, the costliest cyclones in the US history, summary of global and regional dynamical models for track, intensity, and wind radii.
- NASA tropical cyclone: https://disasters-nasa.hub.arcgis.com/ also soil moisture.
- worldwide tropical cyclone centers https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutrsmc.shtml
- storm events database by NOAA: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/
- severe weather data inventory by NOAA https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/severe-weather-data-inventory view https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/maps/swdi/
- usgs total water level and coastal change forecast viewer: https://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/research/twlviewer/
Citation
- ↑ https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2022-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters-historical#:~:text=Tropical%20cyclones%20have%20caused%20the,list%20of%20billion%2Ddollar%20events.
- ↑ https://www.weather.gov/safety/hurricane
- ↑ https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/tc-hazards
- ↑ https://progearthplanetsci.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40645-020-00367-7#availability-of-data-and-materials
- ↑ https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/