IBTrACS: Global Tropical Cyclone Best Track Data

The International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) provides a unified global collection of tropical cyclone data merged from multiple agencies. It includes storm tracks, intensity, and position data, last updated on 2026-07-14. The dataset is published by HDX under a CC-BY-3.0-IGO license.

Use Cases

• Analyzing storm track patterns and movement based on latitude and longitude coordinates.
• Studying storm intensity and development based on maximum sustained wind speed and central pressure.
• Comparing tropical cyclone activity across different ocean basins and sub-basins.
• Temporal analysis of storm frequency and characteristics based on observation timestamps.

Strengths

• Data is described as the most complete global collection of tropical cyclones available.
• Merges recent and historical data from multiple agencies to improve inter-agency comparisons.
• Includes key storm attributes like position, wind speed, pressure, and basin classification.

Limitations

• Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

HDX, aggregating data from multiple responsible WMO agencies.

Collection Method

Merged from multiple agency sources by the IBTrACS project algorithm.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-14 11:58:59.850810

Geography

Global, with specific basin and sub-basin classifications.