NHC Data in GIS Formats

Satellite | Radar | Aircraft Recon | GIS Data | Analysis Tools

Data & Products

Please note these GIS datasets are provided as a convenience to users. Support for these data may not always be available or timely in nature. For issues directly related to the datasets below, please contact us.

	*As of Sun, 22 Dec 2024 22:03:42 UTC*
	*Atlantic*	*Eastern Pacific*	*Central Pacific*	*Archive*
Advisory Forecast Track, Cone of Uncertainty, and Watches/Warnings^‡ Sample Shapefiles: Irma Example Sample KMZ: Cone \| Track \| Warnings	No current data	No current data	No current data
Advisory Wind Field and Forecast Wind Radii^‡ Sample Shapefiles: Irma Example Sample KMZ: Initial Radii \| Forecast Radii	No current data	No current data	No current data
Preliminary Best Track^‡ Note: Final Best Tracks available here Sample Shapefiles: Irma Example Sample KMZ: Past Track	No current data	No current data	No current data
Arrival Time of Tropical Storm Force Winds Sample KMZ: Earliest Reasonable \| Most Likely	No current data GRIB2 data: via HTTPS
Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook^† Sample Shapefile	Outlook areas (if any): [shp] KMZ: [Atlantic] [East Pacific] [Central Pacific]		Atlantic, E Pacific, C Pacific
Wind Speed Probabilities^‡^• Sample Shapefiles: Polygons \| Points Sample KMZ: 34 kt \| 50 kt \| 64 kt	No current data GRIB1 and GRIB2 data: via HTTPS via FTP
Probabilistic Storm Surge^‡* metadata sample	No current data GRIB2: via FTP	N/A	N/A
Potential Storm Surge Flooding (Inundation) metadata sample download instructions interactive example with sample downloads	No current data	N/A	N/A
Storm Surge Watch/Warning Sample KML	No current data	N/A	N/A
Peak Storm Surge Sample KML	No current data	N/A	N/A
Breakpoints^‡ metadata sample (updated for 2019)	2024 update: [shp] [kmz] Interactive Map			View
Storm Surge Communication Points^‡ metadata sample (updated for 2019)	2024 update: [shp] [kmz] Interactive Map			View
GIS Data RSS Feed description	Atlantic GIS	Eastern Pacific GIS	Central Pacific GIS	N/A
Active KML Feed (Google Earth) description	All Tropical Cyclones: [kmz] [kml]

^† Dataset in shapefile format only (delivered as a .zip file)
^‡ Dataset in shapefile and kml/kmz formats
^* Probabilistic Storm Surge is available when U.S. Hurricane Watches/Warnings are in effect

^‡^• Wind Speed Probabilities (WSP)

This dataset is available in shapefile and kml/kmz formats.

The wind speed probabilities data also can be found through the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) at the following locations:

Forecast Days	GRIB2 Download Locations (HTTP & FTP)
1-3	http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.opnl/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.oceanic/VP.001-003/ ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.opnl/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.nhemi/VP.001-003/
4+	http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.opnl/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.oceanic/VP.004-007/ ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.opnl/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.nhemi/VP.004-007/

Technical information on accessing and using NDFD elements can be found at https://graphical.weather.gov/docs/datamanagement.php.

Additional Resources

To see other National Weather Service data available in GIS formats, please visit www.weather.gov/gis.

The NOAA Ocean Service's nowCOAST project provides real-time links to many of these GIS datasets via WMS. More information on accessing these data is available here.

NOAA's Office for Coastal Management maintains a detailed online interactive mapping tool called Historical Hurricane Tracks at coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/hurricanes.html. This tool offers users the ability to search and display global tropical cyclone data. The information can also be downloaded in widely-used GIS data formats.

When using the Historical Hurricane Tracks tool, the left side bar allows you to query storms by their location, name, year, etc. Search options can easily be refineed for the storm (or storms) that are of interest to the user. Please note that the Historical Hurricane Tracks interface will not contain data for the current season until the storms have had their entire datasets analyzed. For example, the 2011 season should be online by early 2012.

Another good source of vulnerability maps and GIS data is NOAA's Digital Coast. This website provides data required by coastal resource management professionals, as well as the tools, training, and information needed to turn these data into useful information.