RAFT: 40,000 Synthetic North Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Tracks with Rainfall

North Atlantic synthetic tropical cyclone events are modeled by the Risk Analysis Framework for Tropical Cyclones (RAFT). The dataset contains 40,000 events with 6-hourly track, intensity, and rainfall data, created by researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. A subset of 17,010 events includes accumulated rainfall data focused within 600 km of the U.S. coast.

Use Cases

• Modeling cyclone wind and pressure impacts based on maximum wind speed and minimum pressure variables
• Analyzing coastal rainfall hazards from tropical cyclones based on accumulated precipitation components
• Studying synthetic storm track climatology in the North Atlantic based on longitude, latitude, and time variables
• Assessing risk from specific cyclone characteristics like the radius of maximum winds

Strengths

• Contains 40,000 synthetic tropical cyclone events for broad statistical analysis
• Includes detailed 6-hourly track and intensity data for each event
• Provides accumulated rainfall data for 17,010 events near the U.S. coast, with components like frictional and topographic precipitation

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Collection Method

Synthetic modeling based on large-scale environmental conditions using the RAFT framework

Geography

North Atlantic basin, with rainfall data focused within 600 km of the U.S. coast