Historical Northern Hemisphere Cyclone Pressure Center Tracks 1899-1939

Northern Hemisphere maps document the trajectories of all atmospheric pressure centers from January 1899 to June 1939. The data was encoded from a 40-year map series and archived by the National Climatic Data Center. It includes separate decade-by-decade track maps for low and high pressure systems.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the relationship between cyclone intensity and its speed of movement during past and following 24 hours.
• Clustering cyclone trajectories based on location, direction of movement, and orientation of major axis.
• Modeling long-term trends in cyclone frequency and acceleration during 48-hour periods over a 40-year span.
• Classifying types of low pressure centers using coded features like serial number and intensity.

Strengths

• Covers a 40-year historical period from 1899 to 1939.
• Includes separate, detailed maps for both low and high pressure centers.

Limitations

• Data is temporally stale, with the last record from June 1939.
• Original data format (punched card deck) may present accessibility challenges.
• The specific row count and sample size of individual cyclone observations are unknown.

Provenance

Source

National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) / NOAA NCEI, from the Northern Hemisphere Historical Map Series.

Collection Method

Data was manually encoded from pressure center track maps derived from a historical map series and punched onto cards.

Time Range

January 1899 through June 1939

Geography

Northern Hemisphere