Reanalysis of the 1954-1963 Atlantic Hurricane Seasons

Abstract

he Hurricane Database, HURDAT2, is the main historical archive of all tropical storms, subtropical storms, and hurricanes from 1851 to the present in the North Atlantic Basin, which includes the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. HURDAT2 is maintained and updated annually by the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. Today, HURDAT2 is widely used by research scientists, operational hurricane forecasters, insurance companies, emergency managers and others. Thus its accuracy is essential. Previous work has shown that a reassessement of HURDAT2 is necessary to correct both random errors and systematic biases. The Atlantic Hurricane Reanalysis Project is an ongoing effort to maintain HURDAT2 and to provide the most accurate database possible based upon on all available data.The work reported here covers hurricane seasons from 1954 to 1963, during the early years of aircraft reconnaissance, but before satellite imagery became available routinely. All available original observations were analyzed from aircraft reconnaissance, ships, land stations, land-based radars and satellite images. The track and intensity of each existing tropical cyclone has been reassessed, and previously unrecognized tropical cyclones have been discovered, analyzed, and recommended to the Best Track Change Committee for inclusion into HURDAT2. Changes were recommended for every storm analyzed in this 10-year period. It was a busy period of hurricane landfalls (centers crossing the coast) in the United States and the Caribbean. Eight major hurricanes impacted the US coastline and five struck the Caribbean islands, Central America and Mexico. Two hurricanes are now tied for the strongest hurricane to hit the US during this period, Hazel in 1954 and Carla in 1961 with 120 kt maximum sustained winds. Originally, the strongest hurricanes in HURDAT2 to hit the US during this period were Audrey in 1957 and Carla in 1961 with maximum sustained winds of 125 kt. The strongest to hit lands bordering the Caribbean Sea was Hurricane Janet in 1955, which made landfall in Chetumal, Mexico with maximum sustained winds of 150 kt, same as originally shown in HURDAT2. The number of tropical cyclones was increased from the original 92 to 112. The number of hurricanes decreased from 60 to 55 and major hurricanes decreased from 31 to 27.