Sources and Data
Datasets used
Every number on stormpast.com is computed from the four files below. No third-party storm database is used.
| Dataset | File | Publisher | Coverage | Fetched from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HURDAT2 Atlantic best track | hurdat2-1851-2025-02272026.txt | NOAA National Hurricane Center | 1851–2025; 2,004 storms, 55,605 track points | nhc.noaa.gov/data/ |
| HURDAT2 Northeast Pacific best track | hurdat2-nepac-1949-2025-02272026.txt | NOAA National Hurricane Center | 1949–2025; 1,262 storms, 32,026 track points | nhc.noaa.gov/data/ |
| Gazetteer file, counties | 2024_Gaz_counties_national.zip | U.S. Census Bureau | 2024 vintage; 3,222 counties | census.gov 2024_Gazetteer |
| Gazetteer file, places | 2024_Gaz_place_national.zip | U.S. Census Bureau | 2024 vintage; 32,333 places | census.gov 2024_Gazetteer |
HURDAT2 filenames change at every revision, so the build reads the NOAA data index and takes whichever files are listed there; names are never hardcoded.
What each file supplies
- HURDAT2 gives, at six-hour spacing, the date and time, system status (HU, TS, TD, SS, SD, EX, LO, DB), centre position and maximum sustained wind. Tracks are interpolated to one-hour steps before any distance is measured.
- Census Gazetteer gives the name, state, GEOID and internal point (INTPTLAT, INTPTLONG) of each county and place. That internal point is the origin for every distance here: the geographic centre of the entity, not its nearest boundary.
Records before 1900 are sparser and less accurate, and storms that stayed at sea were often not recorded before aircraft and satellite reconnaissance.
Licence position
The National Weather Service states: "The information on National Weather Service (NWS) Web pages are in the public domain, unless specifically noted otherwise, and may be used without charge for any lawful purpose so long as you do not: 1) claim it is your own (e.g., by claiming copyright for NWS information), 2) use it in a manner that implies an endorsement or affiliation with NOAA/NWS, or 3) modify its content and then present it as official government material."
The National Hurricane Center states: "The information on government servers are in the public domain, unless specifically annotated otherwise, and may be used freely by the public. This information shall not be modified in content and then presented as offical government material."
Notice under 17 U.S.C. 403. This site incorporates HURDAT2 best track data from the NOAA National Hurricane Center, part of the National Weather Service, and Gazetteer files from the U.S. Census Bureau. That government material is not subject to copyright protection. The counts, distances, intervals and page text are the original work of stormpast.com. No government material has been modified and then presented as official.
The NOAA emblem and the National Weather Service logo are registered trademarks and are not used on this site. stormpast.com is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by NOAA or the National Weather Service, and is not an official source of warnings or forecasts. For anything forward-looking, see nhc.noaa.gov.
Revisions change the numbers
HURDAT2 is revised once a year by the National Hurricane Center, usually in late February, when the finished season is added and older storms are amended by the Atlantic reanalysis. Positions, winds and occasionally whole storms change between revisions, so county counts here can change too. Every page is built from the files named above, and the revision date sits in the filename: 02272026 is the 27 February 2026 revision.
How to cite this page
stormpast.com, "Sources and Data", https://stormpast.com/sources/, built from the HURDAT2 revision of 27 February 2026 and the 2024 Census Gazetteer. Accessed 10 September 2026.
To cite the database rather than this site, cite NOAA directly: nhc.noaa.gov/data/, plus Landsea, C. W., and J. L. Franklin, 2013: Atlantic Hurricane Database Uncertainty and Presentation of a New Database Format. Monthly Weather Review, 141, 3576–3592.
Figures that disagree with the source files can be reported to contact@stormpast.com.