Abstract
Observations of pre-1950 tropical cyclones are sparse due to observational limitations; therefore, the hurricane database HURDAT2 (1851–present) maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration may be incomplete. Here we provide additional documentation for HURDAT2 from historical United States Army fort records (1820–1915) and other archived documents for 28 landfalling tropical cyclones, 20 of which are included in HURDAT2, along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast. One event that occurred in May 1863 is not currently documented in the HURDAT2 database but has been noted in other studies. We identify seven tropical cyclones that occurred before 1851, three of which are potential tropical cyclones. We corroborate the pre-HURDAT2 storms with a tree-ring reconstruction of hurricane impacts from the Florida Keys (1707–2009). Using this information, we suggest landfall locations for the July 1822 hurricane just west of Mobile, Alabama and 1831 hurricane near Last Island, Louisiana on 18 August. Furthermore, we model the probable track of the August 1831 hurricane using the weighted average distance grid method that incorporates historical tropical cyclone tracks to supplement report locations.
Highlights
The HURricane DATabase (HURDAT) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Hurricane Center contains information on Atlantic basin tropical cyclones since 1851 [1]
Twenty of the tropical occurrences found in this study (Table 1) are included in HURDAT2 [5] and/or are documented by other studies [7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 17], but we provide additional information
In May 1863, is revealed in the historical records, but even though it occurred in the HURDAT2 era (i.e., 1851 –present), it is absent from the HURDAT2 database
Summary
The HURricane DATabase (HURDAT) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Hurricane Center contains information on Atlantic basin tropical cyclones since 1851 [1]. HURDAT is considered a comprehensive database, especially during the late 20th century; it is not without inaccuracies [2]. The temporally increasing trend in tropical cyclone frequency since the late 1800s is often mistakenly assumed to be the result of anthropogenic climate change, but it is suggested that this trend is more likely the result of incomplete tropical cyclone reporting due to the limited observational technology of the pre-flight (1944-present) and pre-satellite (1966-present) eras [3]. Ships that observed tropical cyclones may have been lost at sea during storms along with their captain’s logs and weather reports that contain cyclone information. PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0167482 November 29, 2016
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