A reanalysis of the 1944-1953 Atlantic hurricane seasons: The first decade of aircraft reconnaissance

The main historical archive of all tropical storms and hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico from 1851-present is known as HURDAT. The original database of 6-hourly tropical cyclone (TC) positions and intensities contains many systematic biases and random errors. A reanalysis of HURDAT is therefore necessary since this database is widely utilized and depended upon by many people including researchers, forecasters, insurance companies, and emergency managers. The Atlantic Hurricane Reanalysis Project is an ongoing effort to correct the errors in HURDAT and to find previously unrecognized TCs. The reanalysis results for the period 1944-1953, the first decade of aircraft reconnaissance, are presented here. The presentation includes an explanation of the reanalysis process and data sources used, as well as a description of the methodology used for aircraft observations. The presentation also includes an example of a large track/intensity alteration as well as an example of a new hurricane found that did not previously exist in HURDAT. Finally, changes to the number of tropical storms, hurricanes, major hurricanes, accumulated cyclone energy (ACE), and US landfalling hurricanes for each year of the decade are shown.