FORMAT OF TROPICAL CYCLONE VITAL STATISTICS RECORDS (“TCVITALS”)

8-16-2007

 

CHARACTER(S)

Description

Comment

 

 

 

1-4

Organization ID (left justified)

NHC = NOAA/NWS/NCEP/TPC

JTWC = U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center

6-7

Storm ID in this basin

80-99 = test storm

8

Basin identifier

L =  North Atlantic

E = East Pacific

C = Central Pacific

W = West Pacific

U = Australian

S = South Indian

P = South Pacific

A = North Arabian Sea

B = Bay Of Bengal

O = South China Sea

T = East China Sea

10-18

Storm name (left justified)

NAMELESS = default for unnamed storm

TEST = default for unnamed test storm

19

First occurrence indicator

: (colon) = first occurrence of a record for this storm

blank = second or more occurrence of a record for this storm

20-27

Report date (YYYYMMDD) (see 1)

20070815

29-32

Report hour and minute (HHMM)

1800

34-36

Storm center latitude in tenths of a degree (N or S)

 

37

North or south latitude indicator

N = north latitude

S = south latitude

39-42

Storm center longitude in tenths of a degree (E or W)

 

43

East or west longitude indicator

E = east longitude

W = west longitude

44

Special flag for storm direction

C = obtained via climatology

P = obtained via persistence

45-47

Storm direction in degrees from north

270 = storm moving toward due west

48

Special flag for storm speed

C = obtained via climatology

P = obtained via persistence

49-51

Storm speed in tenths of a m/sec

 

52

Special flag for storm central pressure

C = obtained via climatology

P = obtained via persistence

Z = central pressure is set to reported environmental pressure value and environmental pressure is set to reported central pressure value (they are switched)

53-56

Storm central pressure in mb

 

57

Special flag for storm environmental pressure

C = obtained via climatology

P = obtained via persistence

Z = environmental  pressure is set to reported central pressure value and central pressure is set to reported environmental pressure value (they are switched)

58-61

Storm environmental pressure in mb

 

62

Special flag for estimated radius of outermost closed isobar

C = obtained via climatology

P = obtained via persistence

63-66

Estimated radius of outermost closed isobar (i.e., size of storm circulation) in km

 

67

Special flag for estimated maximum wind speed

C = obtained via climatology

P = obtained via persistence

68-69

Estimated maximum wind speed in m/sec

 

71-73

Estimated radius of maximum wind in km

 

75-78

Estimated radius of 34 knot winds in NE quadrant of storm in km2

-999 = no estimate, missing

80-83

Estimated radius of 34 knot winds in SE quadrant of storm in km2

-999 = no estimate, missing

85-88

Estimated radius of 34 knot winds in SW quadrant of storm in km2

-999 = no estimate, missing

90-93

Estimated radius of 34 knot winds in NW quadrant of storm in km2

-999 = no estimate, missing

94

Special flag for storm depth indicator

C = obtained via climatology

P = obtained via persistence

95

Indicator for storm depth

S  = shallow, estimated top of circulation is 700 mb

M = medium, estimated top of circulation is 400 mb

D = deep, estimated top of circulation is 200 mb

X = no estimate, missing

97-100

Estimated radius of 50 knot winds in NE quadrant of storm in km2

-999 = no estimate, missing

102-105

Estimated radius of 50 knot winds in SE quadrant of storm in km2

-999 = no estimate, missing

107-110

Estimated radius of 50 knot winds in SW quadrant of storm in km2

-999 = no estimate, missing

112-115

Estimated radius of 50 knot winds in NW quadrant of storm in km2

-999 = no estimate, missing

117-118

Maximum forecast time in hours

-9 = no estimate, missing

120-122

Estimated latitude at maximum forecast time in tenths of a degree (N or S)

-99 = no estimate, missing

123

North or south latitude indicator

N = north latitude or no estimate or missing

S = south latitude

125-128

Estimated longitude at maximum forecast time in tenths of a degree (E or W)

-999 = no estimate, missing

129

East or west longitude indicator

E = east longitude

W = west longitude or no estimate or missing

131-134

Estimated radius of 64 knot winds in NE quadrant of storm in km2,3

-999 = no estimate, missing

136-139

Estimated radius of 64 knot winds in SE quadrant of storm in km2,3

-999 = no estimate, missing

141-144

Estimated radius of 64 knot winds in SW quadrant of storm in km2,3

-999 = no estimate, missing

146-149

Estimated radius of 64 knot winds in NW quadrant of storm in km2,3

-999 = no estimate, missing

 

 

ITALICS – These appear only in records that have been processed by the NCEP tropical cyclone quality control program SYNDAT_QCTROPCY.

 

BOLDFACE – These appear only in NHC records.

                       

1 – Prior to 1999, report date was written into characters 20-25 as YYMMDD and all subsequent parameters were located 2 characters prior to the location defined here.  For example, storm environmental pressure was located in characters 56-59.

 

2 – The quadrants are defined as:

 

      NW : NE

     ---~O~---

      SW : SE

 

3 – The 64 knot wind quadrant radii began being written into NHC reports on 29 March 2004.

 

 

 

Sample tcvitals report:

 

 

NHC 09E FLOSSIE   20070815 1800 173N 1580W 270 046 1006 1012 0139 21 028 0093 0046 0046 0083 S -999 -999 -999 -999 72 199N 1724W -999 -999 -999 -999

 

--------0---------0---------0---------0---------0---------0---------0---------0---------0---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1

        1         2         3         4         5         6         7         8         9         0         1         2         3         4         5

        0         0         0         0         0         0         0         0         0         0         0         0         0         0         0