IBTrACS: Global Tropical Cyclone Best-Track Data

The International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) provides a unified collection of global tropical cyclone data merged from multiple agencies. It includes storm tracks, intensity, and position data, and is hosted on the HDX platform. The dataset was last updated on 2026-07-14.

Use Cases

• Analyzing storm track patterns and intensity based on latitude, longitude, and wind speed fields.
• Comparing tropical cyclone data across different ocean basins and sub-basins.
• Studying the temporal distribution and nature of storms using the ISO_TIME and NATURE fields.
• Validating climate models using historical best-track pressure and wind observations.

Strengths

• Described as the most complete global collection of tropical cyclones available.
• Merges data from multiple agencies to create a unified best-track dataset for improved comparisons.
• Includes key variables like maximum sustained wind speed (WMO_WIND) and minimum central pressure (WMO_PRES).

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation beyond the listed field names is absent; field semantics must be fully inferred after download.
• Freshness should be verified as the last update date is in the future (2026-07-14).

Provenance

Source

International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) project, aggregated by HDX.

Collection Method

Merges recent and historical tropical cyclone data from multiple responsible agencies.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-14 11:56:15.215131

Geography

Global, with data organized by ocean basin and sub-basin.