Historical Hurricane Size Variations along the U.S. Coast: Analysis of the HURDAT2 64 Knot Wind Field Data Set for U.S. Landfalling Hurricanes

Large tropical cyclones have the potential to cause deadly storm surge and damaging winds across large areas of the United States coastlines. Hurricanes Sandy, Ivan and Katrina are a few examples. The size of the tropical cyclone can also have impacts with bigger storms impacting larger areas of the coastlines. If certain coastlines (i.e. the Atlantic Coastline) are more likely to be impacted by bigger storms, this information can be useful to help develop mitigating strategies and better prepare the population when a storm approaches. To assess this risk, a study was undertaken to determine if certain regions of the coastline are more prone to larger or smaller storms. Landfalling hurricane data from the HURDAT64 database were analyzed from 1988 to 2016 and the hurricanes were sorted into three landfalling areas: the Gulf Coast, the Florida Coast and the Atlantic Coast. The wind speed data was then analyzed at landfalling times to determine the radius of the 64 knot and higher wind speeds as a metric to determine landfalling hurricane size. The results of this study will highlight the areas more prone to impacts from larger storms and will help highlight areas most susceptible to effects from these large storms.