The Tropical Cyclone Report: A report card for every storm

Typography

For every tropical depression, tropical storm and hurricane in the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific basins, a comprehensive review, known as a Tropical Cyclone Report, is performed by the National Hurricane Center.

For every tropical depression, tropical storm and hurricane in the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific basins, a comprehensive review, known as a Tropical Cyclone Report, is performed by the National Hurricane Center.

Think of it as an archive of the storm. The report includes the meteorological history of the storm, intel from satellites, buoys, aircraft reconnaissance, casualty and damage statistics, and a critique of NHC’s forecast and warnings. It becomes an important tool for academic studies, emergency managers use it to plan for future storms, and insurance companies find it helpful for settling claims.

For the 2016 hurricane season, the hurricane center’s scientists wrote 37 Tropical Cyclone Reports, 16 for the Atlantic basin and 21 for the eastern North Pacific basin. The report on Hurricane Matthew was just completed and we learned we did pretty well. The forecast track errors for that storm were significantly lower than the errors over the previous five-years. However, we saw our intensity forecast errors were greater.

 

Continue reading at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Photo via National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).