Wind Data
This page focuses mostly on satellite-derived wind data. For ocean conditions, such as marine weather, buoy data and ship reports, visit our Ocean Data page.
Upper Level Winds (including shear and steering currents)
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Example of CIMSS' Tropical Cyclone front page
Various satellite products are available for active storms, and invests, worldwide. On their front page you can click a storm icon on their map to view data specific to that storm. The second map on their front page has color coded regions. Hover your mouse over a region and options will appear that allow you to choose what product you would like to view. Some of the wind products are listed below.
The products below have data every three hours. You can step forward and backward using the "Time Step" option. Most of the products below have a "5-Day Movie" option below the image you are viewing.
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24 hour product grid from North Atlantic Winds & Analyses page
- Mid-Upper Level Water Vapor & Infrared Winds - About
- Low-Mid Level Infrared Winds - About
- Wind Shear (color)
- Wind Shear - About
- Wind Shear Tendency (over past 24 hours) - About
- Upper Level Divergence (150mb - 300mb) - About
- Lower Level Convergence (850mb - 925mb) - About
- 850mb Relative Vorticity - About
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Layer Mean Wind Analysis (Steering Layers) - About
- 700 - 850mb (TC MSLP / Vmax: >1000mb / <45kts)
- 500 - 850mb (TC MSLP / Vmax: 990-999mb / 45-60kts)
- 400 - 850mb (TC MSLP / Vmax: 970-989mb / 60-90kts)
- 300 - 850mb (TC MSLP / Vmax: 950-969mb / 90-112kts)
- 250 - 850mb (TC MSLP / Vmax: 940-949mb / 112-122kts)
- 200 - 700mb (TC MSLP / Vmax: <940mb / >122kts)
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This is like the Atlantic page, with some of the same products available that we listed under the Atlantic link. For direct links to the products, you can visit the grid.
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Layer Mean Wind Analysis (Steering Layers)
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Surface Wind Imagery
The following section contains imagery that has been created using remote sensing instruments on satellites. To learn more about how these satellites orbit, such as what an ascending and descending pass is, you can visit "Satellite Characteristics: Orbits and Swaths" from the Canadian government. For information about how to read a wind barb, such as that "wind barbs point in the direction 'from' which the wind is blowing", click here.
This section contains imagery that usually has wind barbs. See the section on "Satellite-Derived Intensity Estimate Techniques" for other types of products for surface wind.
This section contains imagery that usually has wind barbs. See the section on "Satellite-Derived Intensity Estimate Techniques" for other types of products for surface wind.
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Ocean Surface Winds Team (OSWT) of the Center for Satellite Application and Research (STAR), NOAA/NESDIS
OSWT page to view Metop ASCAT-B imagery
Make sure you understand how the time is printed on the imagery. The time (in Zulu) at the top is not the time of the data you see in the image. Make sure to read the information at the bottom of the imagery. As of updating this section, for most of the products below, data on the image is sometime from the prior 22 hours from the time at the top. The time, or times, at the bottom of the image, in purple, represent the time a measurement was made in that pass at the latitude given in the text at the bottom of the image.-
Metop satellites
Metop ASCAT-B ascending imagery for October 9th, 2018, around 2:28 GMT, the day before Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida -
CYGNSS imagery for October 10th, 2018, the day Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida
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Scatterometer Wind Measurements from KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute)
In the right column under "Near real time Wind Products" they have a lot of products listed. OSI SAF (EUMETSAT Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility) has global wind data. EARS (EUMETSAT Advanced Retransmission Service) has regional wind data. EARS has imagery across the Atlantic, including just south of the Equator, as well as most of the Pacific in the Northern Hemisphere, north of around 10N. "KNMI is responsible for the wind products in the context of the EUMETSAT Advanced Retransmission Service (EARS). KNMI deploys a regional-coverage ASCAT wind product with a targeted timeliness of 30 minutes from data acquisition. The winds are also displayed on the web in near-real time. The aim of EARS is to provide polar satellite data from the EUMETSAT MetOp and NOAA satellites with a timeliness suited to the needs of European operational short range regional numerical weather prediction models. The geographical coverage of EARS is primarily over data-sparse sea areas around Europe."
Example of a full resolution OSI SAF ASCAT-C Coastal descending image Screenshot from OSI SAF multi-platform product viewer
For more information on their products, see their "Products documentation" page.
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EUMETView from EUMETSAT
12.5 km ASCAT coastal winds from MetOp-C in Hurriane Eta on November 2nd, 2020 from EUMETSAT's EUMETView service.
You can click on a wind barb to get detailed information about it, including wind speed, wind direction and the acquisition time. You can use the timeline at the bottom of the viewer to choose another time period. When we reviewed this site in 2022, we could pull up data from 2020.
The default starting view is of Europe. You will need to pan to the area you want to view.
"ASCAT Coastal Winds at 12.5 km Swath Grid" Data: -
Tropical Cyclone Pages from U.S. NavyNaval Research Laboratory (NRL) and Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC)
SSM/I 85 GHz channel imagery, with 2 degree ticks, from Hurricane Dorian on September 1st, 2019 from NRL's site (source)
ASCAT MetOp-B 25km surface winds in T.D. Eleven on August 12th, 2020 on FNMOC's site -
Multiplatform Tropical Cyclone Surface Winds Analysis (MTCSWA)MTCSWA Main Page (NOAA / SPSD) and Colorado State University and NOAA (RAMMB / CIRA)
Example of multiplatform satellite surface wind analysis of Hurricane Grace in 2021 from Colorado State University
"MTCSWA combines information from several data sources to create a mid-level wind analysis which is then adjusted to the surface. Eight products are displayed, most notably an inner core scale surface wind analysis." (quote from a page on NOAA's site here)
This analysis is available on both sites above. On both sites you have to select the storm you want to view data for. On Colorado State University's (CSU) site you have to look for "Multiplatform Satellite Surface Wind Analysis" on the storm page that contains a lot of different products. For the first link above to NOAA, that section of their site is dedicated to that analysis. Both sites have data archived.
On CSU's storm pages they also have an option, when available, for "Aircraft-based Tropical Cyclone Surface Wind Analysis". This combines MTCSWA data with aircraft reconnaissance. You can read about that here.
You can view a PDF file here from NOAA that contains information about this product. -
This interactive map allows you to view a wide variety of overlays, including surface wind. In the left column, under "Satellite", select "Winds". (You have to click the actual word "Winds", or the arrow, to show the options) You can choose "Ascending" or "Descending" passes for ASCAT METOP-B. You can also add historical wind data as well, starting from 2020 for METOP-B. METOP-A, a satellite that has been retired, had data there from 2016 to 2021 when we checked in June 2022. -
Archived data is also available. For ASCAT (Metop), the archive for some of those satellites seemed to start in 2018.ASCAT-B and ASCAT-C (Metop):OSCAT-2 (ScatSat-1): -
This site occasionally has surface wind data for tropical cyclones globally. It may only have an image for a storm every day, every few days or not at all. When available, the site also has a chart which shows the wind speed for each quadrant of the storm and the distance it is from the center.
You can learn more about the data on this site in the publications section of their site.
A note about some of the sites above. Make sure you note the correct time the data was observed. Some times are simply when the image may have been created, such as the last time the system checked to see if info was available.
Note: On November 23rd, 2009 the QuikSCAT satellite stopped providing real time data due to an instrument failure. On August 19th, 2016 the ISS-RapidScat instrument onboard the International Space Station, which was an instrument quickly constructed to replace QuikSCAT, failed and its mission was later ended.
Satellite-Derived Intensity Estimate Techniques
This section has products that estimate surface wind speed using satellite-derived intensity estimates. Rather than our "Surface Wind Imagery" section with imagery that usually has wind barbs, this section generally has data that tries to estimate the maximum surface wind for current tropical cyclones.
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Dvorak Technique from NOAA
Example of Dvorak Classifications page at NOAA
"Subjective position and intensity estimates of tropical disturbances and cyclones across the globe using the internationally recognized Dvorak technique."
NOAA posts Dvorak classifications every 6 hours for tropical cyclones around the globe, including invests. If a system is too weak, or over land, there may be no classification. These classifications are done by a forecaster.
Example of a text bulletin for a storm
Once you have a Current Intensity T-Number, you can get an estimate of the wind speed using the Dvorak Current Intensity Chart. The NHC says this on that page: "Note that these are intensity estimates and may be superceded by reconnaissance and/or surface observations." The Dvorak technique has its limitations. Please keep that in mind when using the chart.
For information on the Dvorak technique, visit the page here, the Wikipedia article here or the PDF file here from Jack Beven of the National Hurricane Center. You can also learn more on the page here, which, like some of the previous links, is also about the Advanced Dvorak Technique (ADT). -
Advanced Dvorak Technique (University of Wisconsin-Madison | NOAA)
Example of the Advanced Dvorak Technique home page at CIMSS
"The Advanced Dvorak Technique (ADT) utilizes longwave-infrared, temperature measurements from geostationary satellites to estimate tropical cyclone (TC) intensity. The ADT is based upon the operational Dvorak Technique developed by Vern Dvorak of NOAA over 30 years ago." (quote from here)
Example of Advanced Dvorak Technique output for Hurricane Larry in 2021 at CIMSS
To get the wind speed from a T-Number, see the Dvorak Technique section above for the Dvorak Current Intensity Chart. That section also has links to information about not only the Dvorak technique, but the ADT as well. For a page that it mostly about the ADT, click here for a page from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It links to some very detailed information on the technique. That page also has an archive of ADT data since 2003. NOAA's site has an archive since 2008.
We link to the real-time ADT estimates from NOAA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They may differ since they may use different versions of the ADT and/or estimates might be from different times. -
Satellite Consensus Intensity Estimates (SATCON) from University of Wisconsin-Madison (About)This is another technique that gives intensity estimates for storms. This is nice because it gives other satellite intensity estimates as well.
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Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) from University of Wisconsin-Madison (About)This is another technique that gives intensity estimates for storms. Once you are on a storm page, click "Current Intensity" in the top left corner for text data.
Inland Wind Model
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Maximum Envelope of Winds for category 3 hurricane with forward motion of 16 knots making landfall along Gulf Coast
"The model applies a simple two parameter decay equation to the hurricane wind field at landfall to estimate the maximum sustained surface wind as a storm moves inland. This model can be used for operational forecasting of the maximum winds of landfalling tropical cyclones. It can also be used to estimate the maximum inland penetration of hurricane force winds (or any wind threshold) for a given initial storm intensity and forward storm motion." (quote from National Hurricane Center's site)
You can select from three U.S. regions: Gulf Coast, East Coast and Northeast Coast. You can then select one of the forward motion options for the category of storm you want. Those options for the Gulf Coast and East Coast are 8 knots (9 mph), 12 knots (14 mph), 16 knots (18 mph), 20 knots (23 mph) and 24 knots (28 mph). Those options for the Northeast Coast are 15 knots (17 mph), 25 knots (29 mph) and 35 knots (40 mph). There are color coded wind speeds, in knots, in the imagery that show the maximum sustained winds possible inland. The color coded wind speeds shown inland are in intervals of 15 knots and are 35 knots (40 mph), 50 knots (58 mph), 65 knots (75mph), 80 knots (92 mph), 95 knots (109 mph) and 110 knots (127 mph).
Page last modified on July 05, 2024