2021 Hurricane Season through September
- Visualizations by:
- Alex Kekesi and
- Greg Shirah
- View full credits
This data visualization was done for the United Nations Climate Change Conference - Conference of the Parties (COP) 26. The 2021 hurricane season officially ends November 30th. This data visualization will be periodically updated until that date.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
Additional credits:
Storm tracks and strengths courtesy of NOAA's National Weather Service.
Blue Marble MODIS data composite courtesy of the MODIS Science Team NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the NASA Earth Observatory.
Music created and produced by UniqueTracks. Fantasy (theme from Norma) - Vincenzo Bellini.
Animators
- Alex Kekesi (GST) [Lead]
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
Technical support
- Ian Jones (ADNET)
- Laurence Schuler (ADNET)
Data provider
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
IMERG
Hurricane Tracks (A.K.A. Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast (ATCF) - Best Track)
Credit: NOAA
Dataset can be found at: https://ftp.nhc.noaa.gov/atcf/
See more visualizations using this data setCPC (Climate Prediction Center) Cloud Composite
Global cloud cover from multiple satellites
See more visualizations using this data setMUR SST (A.K.A. Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution (MUR) Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Analysis)
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.
Related pages
NOAA and NASA Ready to Launch Crucial New Earth-Observing Satellite Live Shots
Feb. 22nd, 2022
Read moreQuick link to EDITED B-ROLLQuick link to GOES-T resource pageQuick link to canned interview with NOAA GOES-R Program Chief of Staff Kevin Fryer Banner in Spanish Supplemental B-roll with questions. TRT: 03:43Edited B-ROLL for the live shot interviews. Contains short clips of b-roll for each suggested question on the advisory. Video is separated by slates with the question it goes with. Canned interview with Kevin Fryar / GOES Program Chief of Staff. TRT 7:20. SOTS are separated by a slate with the question on it. Full transcript available under the download button Whether you are tuning in to your local weather report to get the latest storm predictions, or checking today’s temperature on your phone - the data for those forecasts come in large part from NOAA satellites. On March 1, NASA will launch a vital new satellite for NOAA, GOES-T. This new satellite will join NOAA’s GOES fleet, a system of satellites that monitors weather both on Earth and in space. For meteorologists, this fleet provides critical data to help deliver life-saving forecasts and warnings. Once GOES-T’s instruments have been checked out on orbit, NOAA will position the renamed “GOES-18” to watch over the U.S. West Coast, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America and the Pacific Ocean. GOES-18 will be ideally located to detect and monitor weather systems and environmental hazards that most affect this region of the Western Hemisphere, such as atmospheric rivers, wildfires, fog, volcanic eruptions, and Pacific hurricanes. Live interviews will be offered on March 1, 2022 from 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. EASTERN TIME. Click here to request an interview: https://forms.gle/2HyU5ZgzmgdsJ6aLASuggested Anchor Intro:(We/Our) Meteorologists bring you forecasts everyday and NOAA GOES satellites are a key factor in delivering the most accurate predictions. Today, NOAA and NASA will launch a new weather observing satellite, NOAA’s GOES-T. The third of its kind, GOES-T will not only help us prepare for weather on Earth– it will track space weather, too! Here to tell us more about it is NOAA expert xxxxxx.Suggested Questions:1. NOAA and NASA are launching an important Earth-observing satellite today. Can you tell us about the GOES-T satellite?2. Can you explain why geostationary orbit is important and how the GOES mission helps our viewers get accurate, and even life-saving, weather data?3. In recent years, we have seen quite a few environmental hazards across the globe including a surprising pressure wave from the volcanic eruption in Tonga and the wildfires in the western U.S. We have some of those images– can you tell us how GOES-T will help us when those types of events happen?4. GOES-T is going to observe more than just weather on Earth– it will also monitor space weather! Can you tell us more about what space weather is and why we monitor it?5. Where can our viewers go to learn more about GOES-T * NOAA.GOV/GOEST* @NOAASatellites* Ciencia.nasa.gov Longer Interview Questions:6. The GOES fleet is a workhorse and has a lot of capabilities that may surprise you. Can you tell us about some of the surprising things GOES can do? 7. Other than helping meteorologists, who else/what industries will GOES-T help when it comes to safety? For More InformationSee [https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/](https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/) Related pages
NASA/JAXA GPM Satellite Examines Hurricane Ida's Eye
Aug. 30th, 2021
Read moreHurricane Ida off the Louisiana coast as a Category 4 hurricane on the morning of Sunday, August 29th at 10:13am (CDT) right before making landfall. This animation varies from the previous (#4932) by flying down to the left side of the storm and only peeling back the layers of volumetric DPR data up to the eye. The camera then flies up to get a straight down bird's eye view of the structure. Doing so allows us to see the multiple bands that extend outside of the inner eye wall. Color bar for frozen precipitation rates (ie, snow rates). Shades of cyan represent low amounts of frozen precipitation, whereas shades of purple represent high amounts of precipitation. Color bar for liquid precipitation rates (ie, rain rates). Shades of green represent low amounts of liquid precipitation, whereas shades of red represent high amounts of precipitation. Hurricane Ida struck southeast Louisiana as a powerful Category 4 storm on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021- the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in 2005. Ida brought destructive storm surge, high winds, and heavy rainfall to the region, and left over 1 million homes and businesses without power, including the entire city of New Orleans.The NASA / JAXA GPM Core Observatory satellite flew over the eye of Ida shortly before landfall at 10:13 a.m. CDT (1513 UTC), capturing data on the structure and intensity of precipitation within the storm. This animation shows NASA's IMERG multi-satellite precipitation estimates and NOAA GOES-E satellite cloud data, followed by 3D data from the GPM Core satellite. NASA processed these observations in near real-time and made them available to a wide range of users including weather agencies and researchers.After Ida passed over Cuba as a Category 1 storm, it intensified rapidly to reach Category 4 strength near its Louisiana landfall. According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Ida's central pressure reached a minimum of 929 hPa with a 15 nautical mile (17 statute mile) wide eye. At the time, Ida had its lifetime-maximum wind speed of 130 kt (150 mph) in the eyewall shortly before 10 a.m. CDT on Aug. 29.The 3D Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) data collected by the GPM Core satellite shows a healthy hurricane inner core in Ida. The small 17-mile-diameter eyewall is surrounded by a nearly complete outer ring of precipitation approximately 85 miles in diameter. Beyond this central structure, an arc of precipitation exists another 40 miles further from the eye to the southeast. The eye hosts many clouds extending well above 6 miles (10 km), which indicates that Ida was still actively growing at the time of this overpass. NASA continues to monitor Ida as it moves north over the southeastern U.S., providing Earth-observing satellite data, maps and analysis to stakeholders to aid response and recovery efforts.Get the latest updates on Hurricane Ida from the National Hurricane Center (NHC).Learn more about how NASA monitors hurricanes. GPM data is archived at https://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Related pages
NASA/JAXA GPM Satellite Eyes Hurricane Ida Shortly Before Landfall
Aug. 30th, 2021
Read moreHurricane Ida off the Louisiana coast as a Category 4 hurricane on the morning of Sunday, August 29th at 10:13am (CDT) right before making landfall. Color bar for frozen precipitation rates (ie, snow rates). Shades of cyan represent low amounts of frozen precipitation, whereas shades of purple represent high amounts of precipitation. Color bar for liquid precipitation rates (ie, rain rates). Shades of green represent low amounts of liquid precipitation, whereas shades of red represent high amounts of precipitation. Hurricane Ida struck southeast Louisiana as a powerful Category 4 storm on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021- the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in 2005. Ida brought destructive storm surge, high winds, and heavy rainfall to the region, and left over 1 million homes and businesses without power, including the entire city of New Orleans.The NASA / JAXA GPM Core Observatory satellite flew over the eye of Ida shortly before landfall at 10:13 a.m. CDT (1513 UTC), capturing data on the structure and intensity of precipitation within the storm. This animation shows NASA's IMERG multi-satellite precipitation estimates and NOAA GOES-E satellite cloud data, followed by 3D data from the GPM Core satellite. NASA processed these observations in near real-time and made them available to a wide range of users including weather agencies and researchers.After Ida passed over Cuba as a Category 1 storm, it intensified rapidly to reach Category 4 strength near its Louisiana landfall. According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Ida's central pressure reached a minimum of 929 hPa with a 15 nautical mile (17 statute mile) wide eye. At the time, Ida had its lifetime-maximum wind speed of 130 kt (150 mph) in the eyewall shortly before 10 a.m. CDT on Aug. 29.The 3D Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) data collected by the GPM Core satellite shows a healthy hurricane inner core in Ida. The small 17-mile-diameter eyewall is surrounded by a nearly complete outer ring of precipitation approximately 85 miles in diameter. Beyond this central structure, an arc of precipitation exists another 40 miles further from the eye to the southeast. The eye hosts many clouds extending well above 6 miles (10 km), which indicates that Ida was still actively growing at the time of this overpass. NASA continues to monitor Ida as it moves north over the southeastern U.S., providing Earth-observing satellite data, maps and analysis to stakeholders to aid response and recovery efforts.Get the latest updates on Hurricane Ida from the National Hurricane Center (NHC).Learn more about how NASA monitors hurricanes. GPM data is archived at https://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Related pages
NASA/JAXA GPM Satellite Sees Tropical Storm Fred Make Florida Landfall
Aug. 17th, 2021
Read moreThis data visualization shows Tropical Storm Fred as it makes landfall on August 16 along the Florida panhandle and then follows it inland on August 17 as it soaked the Alabama Georgia border. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory satellite flew over Tropical Storm Fred at 18:41Z on August 16, 2021 as it made landfall over the Florida pan handle. GPM observed the storm’s rainfall with its two unique science instruments: the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR). Tropical Storm Fred over the Alabama and Georgia border on August 17, 2021. Color bar for liquid precipitation rates (ie, rain rates). Shades of green represent low amounts of liquid precipitation, whereas shades of red represent high amounts of precipitation. Color bar for frozen precipitation rates (ie, snow rates). Shades of cyan represent low amounts of frozen precipitation, whereas shades of purple represent high amounts of precipitation. Tropical Storm Fred, the 6th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, began as a westward moving disturbance in the central Atlantic east of the Lesser Antilles. The system passed through the southern Leeward Islands during the early morning hours of August 10 but still lacked a well-defined center of circulation. Despite significant thunderstorm activity within the system, it wasn’t until late that evening, when the system was passing just south of Puerto Rico, that the National Hurricane Center (NHC) identified a well-defined circulation and upgraded the system to Tropical Storm Fred. Despite the warm waters in the Caribbean, Fred’s nearly constant interaction with land and wind shear over the next few days limited any development. After Fred’s initial landfall as a tropical storm along the south coast of the Dominican Republic on the afternoon of August 11th, the storm tracked directly across the mountainous terrain of Hispaniola and weakened to a tropical depression. The center re-emerged over water on the 12th, but a combination of westerly and southwesterly wind shear and a track close to the north coast of Cuba kept Fred from redeveloping. Then, after encountering more shear while moving across western Cuba on the 13th, Fred further weakened before finally emerging into the southeast Gulf of Mexico as an open wave on the 14th. It takes time for a disorganized tropical system to re-strengthen, and the 14th saw increasing thunderstorm activity and slow re-organization. However, by the morning of August 15th, NHC found that the system had once again become a tropical storm. Now located in the east-central Gulf approximately due west of Fort Myers, Florida, Fred was in the process of recurving to the north due to an upper-level trough of low pressure to the northwest and a ridge of high pressure to the south and east.Fred slowly intensified on August 15 as it moved northeastward through the eastern Gulf of Mexico in the direction of the Florida panhandle with maximum sustained winds increasing to 50 mph by late in the evening. By 7:30 am CDT on the morning of the 16th, NHC reported that Fred’s maximum sustained winds had increased to 60 mph, making it a strong tropical storm. Fred was now just 80 miles south of Apalachicola, Florida and moving north. Several hours later at 18:41 UTC (1:41 pm CDT), just before the storm center made landfall, the NASA / JAXA GPM Core Observatory satellite flew over Fred, capturing 3D data on the structure and intensity of precipitation within the storm. The above animation shows a detailed look into Fred from GPM. Rainfall rates derived from the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) show heavy rainbands (in red and orange) wrapping up around the eastern, northern and western sides of the storm. This pattern, coupled with the intense rain rates (shown in magenta) and tall towers (shown in the blue shading) just west of the center, suggests that Fred was poised for further strengthening. Fred made landfall shortly after the time of the GPM overpass at 19:15 UTC (2:15 pm CDT) near Cape San Blas, Florida with sustained winds of 65 mph. Precipitation data derived from the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) show half-hourly rainfall estimates for the surrounding region leading up to the GPM overpass. After making landfall, Fred tracked northward across the Florida panhandle and into far southeastern Alabama. At this time, the GPM Core Observatory overflew Fred once again. This next animation shows Fred later that evening at 04:41 UTC 17 August (11:41 pm CDT 16 August) preceded again by IMERG rainfall estimates. Once over land, tropical storms and hurricanes usually weaken steadily and GPM shows that Fred’s circulation has begun to diminish with the bulk of the rain now occurring on the eastern side of the center, which is located over far southeastern Alabama near the Georgia border. Banding is still evident, and Fred was still a tropical storm, but its sustained winds were now reported at 40 mph by NHC. After this, Fred continued to track generally northward across northern Georgia and up along the western side of the Appalachians, bringing plenty of tropical moisture with it. Fred has brought widespread amounts of generally 2 to 4 inches of rain along its path with locally higher amounts upwards of 8 inches. This has led to flooding in parts of the Appalachians, especially in western North Carolina where multiple roads and bridges were reported to be washed out. Fred is also being blamed for several tornadoes across the Southeast and one indirect fatality in Florida.GPM data is archived at https://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Related pages
What NASA Knows from Decades of Earth System Observations
Dec. 13th, 2021
Read moreNASA has the world’s largest Earth observing fleet and has an uninterrupted record and observed evidence of climate change. Increased greenhouse gases trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere.Trapped atmospheric greenhouse gases warm the planet – our land, ocean, and atmosphere. Most of the global warming goes into the ocean, delaying the full impact of global warming. Ocean currents move the heat around the globe, impacting your local weather and climate. Warmer oceans accelerate melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Rising seas are a major consequence of climate change, impacting coastal communities, infrastructure, and economy. Warmer climate amplifies Earth’s water cycle. Dry areas are getting drier and wet areas are getting wetter. Wet areas are experiencing more flooding and extreme storms, such as typhoons and hurricanes. Drought prone areas will see less rainfall, effecting agriculture. NASA data are used for projections that can help inform actions for the future. More extreme conditions are occurring due to climate change, such as wildfires. NASA data and knowledge are open and free, enabling informed decision-making. NASA information aids preparation and recovery from natural hazards around the world Karen St. Germain, NASA's Director of Earth Science, gave this presentation to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change ConferenceWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. Warmer climate amplifies Earth’s water cycle. Dry areas are getting drier and wet areas are getting wetter. The top left corner is global precipitation anomaly data from NASA/JAXA GPM IMERG. For the most recent global precipitation anomaly see https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4897 Wet areas are experiencing more flooding and extreme storms, such as typhoons and hurricanes.The top left corner shows the 2021 Hurricane season where the ocean is colored by sea surface temperature from NASA Aqua MODIS, MUR. The global precipitation is NASA/JAXA GPM IMERG, and the cloud data is NOAA CPC. Trapped atmospheric greenhouse gases warm the planet – our land, ocean, and atmosphere. Temperature Difference from the average temperature is data from NASA GISSTEMP, and the total extra heat trapped in the earth system is data from NASA CERES. More extreme conditions are occurring due to climate change, such as wildfires.The data on the left is activefires from NASA/NOAA Suomi-NPP/VIIRS. The data on the left is Landsat 8-OLI of the Camp Fire from Nov 8, 2018 https://landsat.visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=144225 Drought prone areas will see less rainfall, effecting agriculture.Data on the left is NASA SMAP data visualized by NASA Eyes. For the latest NASA SMAP data visualized with NASA Eyes see https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/earth/#/vitalsign?vitalsign=soil_moisture&altid=0&animating=f&start=&end= NASA's Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) mission will test the connection between ocean warming and ice loss in Greenland. Warmer oceans accelerate melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica Rising seas are a major consequence of climate change, impacting coastal communities, infrastructure, and economy. Source: NASA/CNES/NOAA/EUMETSAT/ESA TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, 2, & 3, Sentinel-6MF NASA data are used for projections that can help inform actions for the future. Here is an example of yield projections from wheat and maize. Source is Jaegermeyer et al. 2021 CMIP6, AgMIP, NASA Goddard. NASA Informs Actionable Climate Decision MakingNASA information aids preparation and recovery from natural hazards around the world like tracking fires at https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/ Since 1993, NASA has continuously been measuring Sea Level Height of the global oceans. NASA data and knowledge are open and free, enabling informed decision-makingExample: planning for sea level rise on 10-100 year horizons at your coastal cityhttps://sealevel.nasa.gov (also at UNFCCC) Related pages
Complete 2021 Hurricane Season
April 21st, 2022
Read moreThis special version of the 2021 Hurricane Season data visualization uses all the below layers to show the entire 2021 Hurricane Season, but elements of it were sped up in post production to accelerate the data when no hurricanes are present. This provides the viewer with a more compact experience that focuses exclusively on the hurricanes. This data visualization shows the complete 2021 hurricane season beginning on May 1, 2021 throught November 30, 2021. Time moves at a constant rate throughout this visualization showing both the hurricanes and the down times between the hurricanes. After the last hurricane of the season, Wanda, is displayed, we dissolve in all the storms for the 2021 Hurricane season to show all their paths and strengths together on one map. Hurricane tracks for the 2021 season covering May 1 through November 30, 2021 with time moving at a constant rate. Cloud composite covering May 1 through November 30, 2021 with time moving at a constant rate. Surface Precipitation from May 1 through November 30, 2021 with time moving at a constant rate. Areas in green and yellow are areas of relatively light rain. Oranges and reds depict areas of intense rainfall. Color bar for frozen precipitation rates (ie, snow rates). Shades of cyan represent low amounts of frozen precipitation, whereas shades of purple represent high amounts of precipitation. Color bar for liquid precipitation rates (ie, rain rates). Shades of green represent low amounts of liquid precipitation, whereas shades of red represent high amounts of precipitation. Sea Surface Temperature (SST) from May 1 through November 30, 2021 with time moving at a constant rate. Sea Surface Temperature colorbar focusing primarily on temperatures between 20 degrees Celsius to 30 Celsius. Final still frame overlay showing all the hurricanes of the 2021 season together. This visualization shows the hurricanes and tropical storms of 2021 as seen by NASA’s Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) - a data product combining precipitation observations from infrared and microwave satellite sensors united by the GPM Core Observatory. IMERG provides near real-time half-hourly precipitation estimates at ~10km resolution for the entire globe, helping researchers better understand Earth’s water cycle and extreme weather events, with applications for disaster management, tracking disease, resource management, energy production and food security. IMERG rain rates (in mm/hr) are laid under infrared cloud data from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Cloud Composite dataset together with storm tracks from the NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC) Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecasting (ATCF) model. Sea surface temperatures (SST) are also shown over the oceans, derived from the NASA Multi-sensor Ultra-high Resolution (MUR) dataset, which combines data from multiple geostationary and orbiting satellites. Sea surface temperatures play an important role in hurricane formation and development, with warmer temperatures linked to more intense storms. Related pages