How to read the hurricane history map
The map shows 13,248 tropical cyclones recorded worldwide from 1842 to 2026. Each storm is a line through its six-hourly positions, coloured by its intensity on the Saffir-Simpson scale at each point. A line therefore changes colour as the storm strengthens or weakens. Hurricanes (North Atlantic and eastern Pacific), typhoons (western Pacific) and cyclones (Indian Ocean and the southern hemisphere) are the same kind of storm.
- Tropical depression. Winds below 34 knots (39 mph)
- Tropical storm. 34 to 63 knots (39 to 73 mph)
- Category 1. 64 to 82 knots (74 to 95 mph)
- Category 2. 83 to 95 knots (96 to 110 mph)
- Category 3. 96 to 112 knots (111 to 129 mph), major
- Category 4. 113 to 136 knots (130 to 156 mph), major
- Category 5. 137 knots (157 mph) or more, major
- Unknown intensity. No wind speed in the record
- Post-tropical. Storm has become post-tropical (dashed line)
Only 331 storms in the record reached category 5 and 789 reached category 4, while 5,569 (42%) have no wind speed in the record and show as unknown. Use the controls under the map to pick a range of years, choose basins, set a minimum category or search by name. When you are zoomed out, only the stronger storms are drawn so the map stays readable. Zoom in and weaker ones appear.
All 13,248 storms by peak category
| Peak category | Storms | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tropical depressionWinds below 34 knots (39 mph) | 820 | 6% |
| Tropical storm34 to 63 knots (39 to 73 mph) | 3,130 | 24% |
| Category 164 to 82 knots (74 to 95 mph) | 1,298 | 10% |
| Category 283 to 95 knots (96 to 110 mph) | 694 | 5% |
| Category 396 to 112 knots (111 to 129 mph), major | 617 | 5% |
| Category 4113 to 136 knots (130 to 156 mph), major | 789 | 6% |
| Category 5137 knots (157 mph) or more, major | 331 | 2% |
| Unknown intensityNo wind speed in the record | 5,569 | 42% |
Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are the same storm
A hurricane, a typhoon and a cyclone are all tropical cyclones: a huge spinning storm that forms over warm tropical ocean, fed by heat and moisture rising from the water. The name depends only on the ocean. In the North Atlantic and the eastern Pacific it is a hurricane, in the western Pacific a typhoon, and in the Indian Ocean and around Australia and the South Pacific a cyclone. This hurricane tracks map covers all of them, so you can compare a typhoon in the Philippine Sea with a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico on the same colours.
Storms rotate anticlockwise north of the equator and clockwise south of it. They weaken quickly over cool water or over land, which is why the long tracks on the map so often fade out soon after coming ashore.
The Saffir-Simpson scale
The Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale rates a storm from category 1 to category 5 by its sustained wind speed. Weaker storms are called tropical depressions and tropical storms. The key above shows the wind range for each step. Of the 13,248 storms here, 3,729 reached category 1 or stronger, and 3,130 peaked as tropical storms.
The scale measures wind and nothing else. A slow, wet storm that never passes category 1 can flood a city, and most deaths in tropical cyclones come from storm surge (the sea pushed ashore) and flooding from rain, not from the wind itself. A category is a useful label, not a measure of how dangerous a particular storm was.
The busiest basins
The western Pacific is the busiest basin on record, with 4,098 storms. The North Atlantic, where hurricanes are most often reported in the news, has 2,258 and the eastern Pacific 1,374. The full list is in the seven basins below. Most storms start in September, because the sea is warmest in late summer. The strongest on record is Nancy (1961), and the longest-lived is Freddy (2023), which lasted 38 days. If you are looking for historical hurricane tracks near a particular place, the storms near me section explains how to find them.
Storms near me
Search a town, city or ZIP code, press Near me, or tap anywhere on the map. A summary card shows how many storms have passed within 50, 100 and 200 km (and the same in miles) of that spot since 1842, plus the closest, strongest and most recent of them and a count by category. It uses every storm and every year, whatever the filters are set to.
Your browser asks for permission before Near me works, and your position stays on your device. Search covers cities of 15,000 people or more worldwide and US towns and ZIP codes; street addresses are not supported yet.
Tap a line to see the storm's name, year, basin, peak intensity, lowest pressure and dates, and for the stronger storms where it came ashore.
The seven basins
The record divides the oceans into basins. By number of storms, the busiest is the Western North Pacific basin with 4,098. Storms most often start in September.
- Western North Pacific (WP, 4,098 storms)
- South-West Indian (SI, 2,611 storms)
- North Atlantic (NA, 2,258 storms)
- North Indian (NI, 1,725 storms)
- Eastern and central Pacific (EP, 1,374 storms)
- South Pacific and Australian region (SP, 1,179 storms)
- South Atlantic (SA, 3 storms)
A storm is counted in the basin where it formed.
Read this before you rely on the numbers
- Records before the satellite era (about the 1960s) are estimates, and storms that stayed at sea may be missing. 5,569 storms have no wind speed in the record.
- Agencies measure wind over different periods. The categories here use 1-minute winds. Where only a 10-minute wind exists it is converted, so a storm can look stronger than in its own country's records.
- Tracks join six-hourly positions with straight lines. A storm's winds and rain reach far beyond its centre.
- 159 storms of 2025 and 2026 are provisional and may change.
- This is a historical record. It is not a forecast or warning service, and it is not a risk assessment. For active storms use the National Hurricane Center or your national weather agency.
The strongest storms on record
- Nancy (1961)6 September 1961 to 20 September 1961, peak Category 5 (185 kt), 890 hPa
- Patricia (2015)20 October 2015 to 24 October 2015, peak Category 5 (185 kt), 872 hPa
- Ruth (1955)12 December 1955 to 18 December 1955, peak Category 5 (180 kt), 925 hPa
- Violet (1961)2 October 1961 to 11 October 1961, peak Category 5 (180 kt), 895 hPa
- Ida (1958)20 September 1958 to 29 September 1958, peak Category 5 (175 kt), 877 hPa
All notable storms · Storm seasons
Behind every number here are people who were hurt or killed. We give the figures as the official record has them, and try to describe each storm plainly.
Hurricane history by place
The countries with the most storms within 50 km:
- People's Republic of China storm history (1,307 storms)
- India storm history (1,281 storms)
- Philippines storm history (1,236 storms)
- Japan storm history (1,213 storms)
- United States of America storm history (799 storms)
- Australia storm history (743 storms)
- Mexico storm history (729 storms)
- Vietnam storm history (588 storms)
In the United States, the places with the most are:
- Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands hurricane history (396 storms)
- Florida hurricane history (359 storms)
- North Carolina hurricane history (216 storms)
- Georgia hurricane history (207 storms)
- Louisiana hurricane history (182 storms)
- Texas hurricane history (171 storms)
- South Carolina hurricane history (168 storms)
- Alabama hurricane history (166 storms)
Tornadoes too
The same history is available for US tornadoes, state by state and county by county.
Where the data comes from and how it was collected
The storms come from NOAA's International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS), version v04r01, downloaded on 2026-10-12. Boundaries are from the US Census Bureau and Natural Earth. Every count on this site is worked out from the official file by a script that runs the same way each time. See all data sources, caveats and licences.
The oldest records come from ship logs and the reports of coastal observers, so for a long time a storm was only noticed if it crossed a ship's path or reached land. From the 1940s, aircraft flew into storms in the Atlantic and the western Pacific to measure them directly. From the 1960s and 1970s, satellites gave the first view of storms in every ocean, including those far from any ship or coast. That is why the number of storms recorded in a decade rises from 144 in the 1850s to 1,218 in the 1970s: it reflects better observing at least as much as any change in the weather.
Because of this, older tracks are best estimates, drawn by forecasters looking back at scattered observations, and the earliest wind speeds are rough. 5,569 storms (42%) have no wind speed at all. Different agencies also measure wind differently: the US centres average it over one minute, while most other agencies use ten minutes, which gives a lower number for the same storm. IBTrACS gathers the records from every agency into one file and lines them up, and this site takes the US ("USA") wind where it exists and otherwise converts the agency's ten-minute wind to a one-minute equivalent. The agency behind each storm's peak is named on its page. Even so, a category shown here can differ from one in a national forecast office's own records.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a hurricane, a typhoon and a cyclone?
Nothing, apart from where it happens. They are all tropical cyclones: huge rotating storms that feed on warm ocean water. The word hurricane is used in the North Atlantic and the eastern Pacific, typhoon in the western Pacific, and cyclone in the Indian Ocean and around Australia and the South Pacific. The map uses one scale for all of them, so you can compare a typhoon with a hurricane directly.
Which storms are on this hurricane tracks map?
Every tropical cyclone in the NOAA IBTrACS archive (version v04r01) from 1842 to 2026: 13,248 storms in every ocean basin. Older records are estimates, and storms that stayed at sea before the satellite era may be missing.
Has a hurricane ever hit my town?
Type your town, city or US ZIP code into the search box on the map, press Near me, or tap anywhere on the map. You get the number of storms whose centre passed within 50, 100 and 200 km (and the same in miles) since 1842, plus the closest, the strongest, the most recent and a count by category. The place pages count a storm when its track passed within 50 km, so a storm that is counted may not have made landfall there. Street-address search is not available yet.
Which hurricanes have hit Florida?
Florida has had 359 storms pass within 50 km since 1851 (number 2 among US states and territories). The Florida hurricane history page (under Hurricane history by place on this page) lists the strongest, the most recent and the busiest counties, each with its own page.
How far back do the historical hurricane tracks go?
The earliest storms in the data are from 1842 and the latest are from 2026. Coverage is thin at the start: the record holds 144 storms for the 1850s and 1,218 for the 1970s, mostly because ships and coastal observers saw only part of what was out there before aircraft and satellites.
What do the hurricane categories mean?
Categories 1 to 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale rate a storm by its sustained wind speed, and the key above the map gives the wind range for each. Below category 1 a storm is a tropical depression or tropical storm. The scale measures wind only. It does not capture the rain or the storm surge, which cause much of the harm. In this record 3,729 storms reached category 1 or stronger and 331 reached category 5.
What is the strongest storm in the data?
By peak wind, Nancy (1961) in the Western North Pacific basin, at 185 knots. The lowest pressure recorded is 870 hPa, in Tip (1979). Wind estimates from the older western Pacific records are less certain than modern measurements, so treat such rankings as approximate.
Why can a storm have a different category from the one I read elsewhere?
Forecast centres average wind over different periods. US centres use 1-minute winds. Most others use 10-minute winds, which this site converts to a 1-minute equivalent. A storm can therefore look stronger here than in its own country's records. Each storm page names the agency behind its peak.
Is this a hurricane forecast or warning service?
No. This site shows past storms only and is not a forecast, a warning or a risk assessment. For active storms, use the National Hurricane Center at nhc.noaa.gov or your national weather agency.
Data credits: see all data sources and licences. IBTrACS v04r01, data to 2026-10-11 00:00.