International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS)
World Data Center for Meteorology, Asheville.

IBTrACS-WMO data

Only data from the WMO RSMCs are provided by this subset. For data from other agencies (e.g., JTWC, CMA, etc.), please access the complete IBTrACS dataset.

Registration

Please register to be notified of: new releases, data set errors and other important information about IBTrACS.

Caveats

The following caveats should be considered prior to using IBTrACS:
  • BUGS - Dataset errors will be noted on the status page.
  • Due to the disparity between storm positions prior to 1970, some tracks during that period may not be properly merged.
  • Due to the disparities in time between sources, some dates and times were changed in one source to match another. However, it is not clear which source had the correct time or date. From the original 16,539 storm tracks, only 255 tracks required time adjustments.

NCDC Data set identification

Access

The following formats limit data to only one position and one intensity. Rather than perform an average, we choose to provide the WMO Official intensities and positions. For access to all available intensities and positions, users whould access the complete IBTrACS dataset.

Format Data File Access
ATCF All storms (2 MB) Storms by basin Storms by year
CSV All storms (2 MB) Storms by basin Storms by year
cXML All storms (2 MB) Storms by basin Storms by year
HURDAT format All storms (1 MB) Storms by basin Storms by hemisphere
NH - SH
netCDF All storms (2 MB) Storms by basin Storms by year
WMO All storms (2 MB) Storms by basin Storms by year
  • When accessing numerous files simultaneously, files are tarred and gzipped to simplify downloads.
  • Data files are available in the following ways:
    • By storm - Each storm is in a separate file.
    • All storms - All IBTrACS storms in one file.
    • Storms by basin - All IBTrACS storms for a particular basin (all years).
    • Storms by year - All IBTrACS storms for a particular year (all basins).
    • Storms by hemisphere - All IBTrACS storms for a hemisphere.
  • Description of the storm serial number convention
  • A cross referencing table is available which maps IBTrACS serial numbers to WMO storm names and other storm identification.
  • Format descriptions
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