U.S. Tropical Cyclone Wind Exposure Model, 1900-2016

1900-2016 modeled historical exposure of U.S. offshore, coastal, and international waters to tropical cyclone activity within the North Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins. The data, from NOAA NCEI, quantifies exposure using intersecting storm tracks, overlapping wind intensity areas, and mathematical return intervals based on a grid of BOEM Outer Continental Shelf Lease Blocks. It uses a subset of the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) for storm segments meeting specific basin, date, and intensity criteria.

Use Cases

• Modeling historical wind hazard risk for offshore energy infrastructure based on the BOEM lease block grid.
• Analyzing long-term tropical cyclone climatology patterns based on storm track segments from the IBTrACS archive.
• Assessing exposure to tropical storm force (34-knot) or greater winds for coastal planning based on gridded wind intensity metrics.
• Comparing wind exposure metrics between ocean basins (North Atlantic and Eastern Pacific) over the 116-year period.

Strengths

• Covers a 116-year time range (1900-2016) for long-term climatological analysis.
• Integrates storm track data from the authoritative International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS).
• Quantifies exposure using multiple metrics: intersecting tracks, overlapping wind areas, and mathematical return intervals.
• Provides geospatial coverage for U.S. offshore, coastal, and international waters across two ocean basins.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Last updated 2016-12-31 00:00:00; freshness should be verified.
• The description notes wind calculations differ over land and water, requiring careful interpretation in coastal areas.

Provenance

Source

NOAA_NCEI

Collection Method

Modeled exposure based on a grid of BOEM Outer Continental Shelf Lease Blocks and a processed subset of IBTrACS storm track data.

Time Range

1900-2016

Freshness

Last updated 2016-12-31 00:00:00

Geography

U.S. offshore, coastal, and international waters within the North Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Ocean basins.