Best tracks for 2018 are now in IBTrACS v04r00

[IBTrACS News]

Hi IBTrACS users-

After the release of JTWC best tracks in early October, the IBTrACS team has now completed testing  all agency data for 2018 and included it in IBTrACS.

As of 10/20/2019, v04r00 now includes all available Best Track data for 2018 storm. Please see the IBTrACS website for access details.

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ibtracs/

Related to this input, we have improved the web-browseable data at: http://ibtracs.unca.edu/ ... some improvements include:

- Links to recent storms on the main page.

- Information on storm track type and whether the data are best track or provisional on the storm page.

As always, please consider describing your usage of IBTrACS at this link. The more information you can provide (and how your usage will affect others), the better we will be able to justify continued support, updates and improvements of IBTrACS.

Best Regards,

The IBTrACS Team

Here's what we added to v04r00.

Northern Hemisphere agency data that were added for 2018:

- RSMC Miami - National Hurricane Center best tracks  - N Atl. and E Pac. Please see the note below for information on Central Pacific Hurricanes.

- RSMC Tokyo - JMA  - West Pacific

- RSMC New Delhi (IMD) - North Indian Ocean.

- China's CMA - West Pacific

- HKO - West Pacific

- US JTWC  - W Pacific, Indian Ocean, Southern Hemisphere

Southern Hemisphere season Jul 2017 - Jun 2018

- Australia's BoM  for Southeast Indian Ocean and South West Pacific

- RSMC La Reunion for Southwest Indian Ocean  (also added 2016-2017 since we missed that last year)

- RSMC Nadi (Fiji) - For Southern Pacific

- TCWC Wellington - For Southern Pacific

Note: Southern Hemisphere agency data is only for the first half of the year since their best tracking is done for the Southern Hemisphere seasons (which start in July and end the next year in June).

Note from HURDAT2 web site regarding Central Pacific Hurricanes (accessed NHC site on 10/22/2019)

"This dataset was provided on 5 July 2019 for the 2018 tropical cyclone season. The best tracks provided in this database for the following systems in the Central Pacific Hurricane Center area of responsibility (between 140 and 180W longitude) are operational estimates and have not yet been post-storm analyzed: Lane (EP142018) and Walaka (CP012018). The final best tracks for these systems will be updated when they become available."