Storm Record Desk Analysis Controls

Current View

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Guided Views 8

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Years 1851–2025

Start Year End Year

Aircraft reconnaissance began in 1944 and satellites in the 1960s. Storms before then were only recorded when someone was there to see them.

Find A Storm

Searches every named storm. Press / to begin.

Strength All Strengths

Choose Individual Categories

Major hurricane means Category 3 or stronger. Each storm is grouped by the strongest wind it reached anywhere along its track, which is often far out at sea.

Map Story Shape · Color

What The Map Shows

Track height follows wind speed, so a storm rises as it strengthens and settles as it fades.

Color Tracks By Landfall Impact Shows

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Storm Minimums

Show a storm only when it meets these values.

Minimum Energy Lowest Pressure Below

Only storms that reached the United States Only named storms

No extra filters applied.

Landfall State

Choose States

Keeps storms recorded as reaching land in the states you choose.

NOAA HURDAT2 Atlantic best track, 1851–2025. Storm detail from the National Hurricane Center.

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Hurricane Tracks hurricane.jbf.com

Preparing the hurricane record…

1851–2025

Play the record season by season.

Mode Speed

Loading The Hurricane Record

Reading 175 years of Atlantic best-track data…

Filtered Record Storm Details

Preparing storm records…

							Reached Land
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Hurricane Guide

Understand The Map And Storm Categories

Every line on this map is one storm's path. In 3D, the track rises with the wind speed measured at each point along the way, so a storm climbs as it strengthens and settles back down as it weakens. Color shows the category the storm reached.

ShapeWhere Did It Go?

The six-hour positions recorded for the storm, drawn end to end.

HeightHow Strong Was It?

Wind speed at each point, so the peak of the line is the peak of the storm.

ColorWhat Category?

The strongest category the storm reached anywhere along its path.

Using The Map

A Simple Three-Step Workflow

Choose the years and strength.Use the left panel or start with a guided view.
Play the timeline.Watch the record build season by season, or hold on a single year.
Select a storm.Click any track. The right panel tells that storm's story; the table below the map lists every storm behind the current view.

The Saffir-Simpson Scale

What The Categories Mean

Categories describe sustained wind speed only. They do not describe storm surge, rainfall, or size, which cause most hurricane deaths.

Category	Sustained Wind	Typical Effects
Depression	Under 39 mph	An organized system that has not yet reached storm strength.
Tropical Storm	39–73 mph	The storm earns a name. Downed limbs and local flooding.
Category 1	74–95 mph	Damage to roofing, siding, gutters, and trees.
Category 2	96–110 mph	Major roof and siding damage; near-total power loss.
Category 3	111–129 mph	Major hurricane. Homes lose roof decking and gables.
Category 4	130–156 mph	Severe damage; most of the area uninhabitable for weeks.
Category 5	157 mph and higher	Catastrophic damage; a high share of homes destroyed.

“Major hurricane” is a technical grouping: Category 3 or stronger. A Category 1 storm that stalls over land can still kill more people than a Category 5 that stays at sea.

Reading The Record

Compare Historical Periods Carefully

Storms before about 1944 were recorded only when a ship or a coastline encountered them. Many storms that stayed at sea were never counted at all, and their positions can be off by dozens of miles.
Aircraft reconnaissance began in 1944 and satellite coverage in the 1960s. The apparent rise in storm counts partly reflects better observation, not only a changing climate.
Central pressure is missing for most storms before the 1970s, so the map shows it only when it was recorded.
This map deliberately carries no death or damage figures. The only such file available locally attached real death tolls to the wrong storms, so nothing here is built from it. Every number on this map comes from the best-track record itself.
Landfall points are recorded through 2024. The 2025 season is drawn from a preliminary season file that does not yet carry landfall markers.

About The Data

Record: 1851–2025
Storms: Pending
Track Points: Pending
Landfall Points In A County: Pending

Source: NOAA HURDAT2 Atlantic best-track database and the National Hurricane Center. Counties come from the Red Cross county spine.

Official References National Hurricane Center: HURDAT2 Best Track Data National Hurricane Center: The Saffir-Simpson Scale

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