Updating Storminess Records for LTER Sites

The data records for storminess and their analysis for the period 1885-1996 for the continental US were compiled from NOAA data (Climate Variability and Ecosystem Response at Long-Term Ecological Research SItes, 2003).  Analyses and records are available in LTER dataset knb-lter-vcr.26.14. We are now engaged in updating the records for the period 1997-2012. This task is complicated by the fact that NOAA ceased producing the storm track data on which the previous analyses were based. Therefore, we need to construct the strorm tracks based on 6-hourly weather maps (approximately 23,000 individual maps). Each map typically includes 6-7 storms, each of which needs to be individually identified to allow storm tracks to be produced. We are using image processing and geographical information system technologies to harvest the information from manually tagged storms identified on the 6-hour maps. The GIS can then be used to extract storm counts for grid cells associated with specific LTER sites in the continental US.