HOME > Climate & Weather Linkage > Storm Track Monitoring
 

 
  • Current Conditions

Storm tracks and cyclogenesis/cyclolysis locations for the past 7 and 30 days. Tracks are based on an algorithm developed at the Climate Diagnostics Center (CDC) [Serreze (1995), and Serreze et al. (1997)]. Storm tracks are identified by locating grid points in which the sea level pressure (SLP) is less than its surrounding grid points. The threshold used here is 1 mb. The storms are tracked by analyzing the position of systems between time steps and applying a maximum distance threshold between candidate pairings (800 km). The intensity of the cyclone is given by the color of the line segment with storms of higher pressure indicated by black and storms with lower pressure indicated in red. The top three panels show storm tracks and total precipitation (mm), mean anomalous 925 mb wind vectors (m/s), and significant wave heights (m) respectively included. The bottom panel shows cyclogenesis and cyclolysis locations during the period with the smaller dots indicating higher pressure and larger dots lower pressure at the time of development or dissipation.

 
Past 7 days Past 30 days

Weekly Storm Tracks

Monthly Storm Tracks


 

[Back to the Top]

 

Latitude-time and time-longitude plots of storm frequency (the number of closed circulations in 10 x 10 degree regions per pentad) for selected cross sections in the northern hemisphere. Each figure below contains four panels corresponding to different cross sections from the western Pacific to the Atlantic. Each panel contains two figures (one showing the location of the area of interest and the second the storm frequency). A three pentad running mean is applied to the data.


 
Latitude-Time: West/Central Pacific Latitude-Time: East Pacific/CONUS Latitude-Time: Atlantic Time-longitude: Northern Hemisphere

Storm Frequency

Storm Frequency

Storm Frequency

Storm Frequency



 

[Back to the Top]

   

Four panel figures of storm tracks and cyclogenesis/cyclolysis regions for the GFS operational and ensemble mean forecasts for week 1. The top three panels show storm tracks with total precipitation (mm), mean anomalous 925 mb wind vectors (m/s), and mean significant wave heights (m) respectively included. The bottom panel shows cyclogenesis and cyclolysis locations during the period with the smaller dots indicating higher pressure and larger dots lower pressure at the time of development or dissipation.

 
GFS Operational: Week 1 GFS Ensemble Mean: Week 1
GFS Storm Tracks

GFS Storm Tracks


 

[Back to the Top]


   

[Back to the Top]


   
Storm Track Climatology
Average seasonal frequency of storms binned into 5x5 degree grid boxes for (a) winter (JFM), (b) spring (AMJ), (c) summer (JAS), and (d) fall (OND). The frequencies are calculated from the 1950-2002 time period.
 
ENSO Composites
January, February, and March (JFM) storm track frequency binned into 5x5 degree grid boxes composited by ENSO phase. Composites are calculated using the ENSO Intensity Scale (EIS) based on the Oceanic Nino Index (ONI) defined as the three month running mean of SST anomalies for the NINO 3.4 region (Kousky and Higgins, 2004).
 
Average JFM storm track frequency difference for (top panel) strong El Nino (EIS greater than or equal to 3) minus Neutral conditions and (bottom panel) strong La Nina (EIS less than or equal to 3) minus Neutral conditions.
 

[Back to the Top]


   

[Back to the Top]


   

[Back to the Top]


   

Eichler, T. and R. W. Higgins, 2005: Climatology and ENSO-Related Variability of North American Extratropical Cyclone Activity, J. Climate, Accepted.


 

[Back to the Top]