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Tropical storm hazard icon Tropical Storms

ADAM continuously monitors all significant tropical cyclones worldwide. Dashboards are updated with each new weather forecast and cover trajectory, rainfall, wind speeds, storm surge, exposed population and WFP facility exposure.

Data sources

  • JTWC and NOAA — the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and the US National Hurricane Center warning bulletins: current position, wind speed, classification, forecast track and uncertainty
  • ECMWF — European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts: 5-day accumulated precipitation forecast
  • GDACS — Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System: event and episode identifiers, cross-reference
  • Reference layers — a global population grid, GAUL administrative boundaries, WFP facilities and UN Humanitarian Response Depots

What ADAM produces

  • Wind Map — observed track, forecast positions with timestamps, uncertainty cone, wind buffers, people living in areas at risk, closest WFP facilities
  • Rainfall map — 5-day accumulated precipitation forecast with a table of precipitation by city
  • Population table — exposed population per administrative unit and wind buffer, as XLSX and CSV
  • Shapefile — track, forecast positions and buffers for GIS software
  • Map layers — events, tracks, buffers and forecast nodes as API collections, plus the same set for disturbances

The products are described in Dashboards & Products; the layers are listed in Use ADAM in QGIS.

How to read the outputs

One storm, many episodes. Every new warning bulletin, typically every 6 hours, creates a new episode of the storm and ADAM reissues the whole product set for it. The storm keeps its name and year suffix, for example KROVANH-26, while episode_id increases. Always work from the latest episode; older ones remain in the API for the record.

Alert level. Each episode carries an alert level, Green, Orange or Red, that summarises how serious the expected impact is. It drives the alert emails and the colour of the storm layers in the Live Map and in the API.

Wind classes and wind buffers. Symbols are coloured by maximum sustained wind: below 110 km/h, 110 to 185, 185 to 240, above 240. The people living in areas at risk figures count the population inside the zones expected to experience winds of at least 60, 90 and 120 km/h. Higher thresholds mean stronger winds over fewer people, so read the three numbers together.

Forecast is probabilistic, observation is not. Filled glyphs on the maps are observed positions; outlined glyphs are forecast positions. The uncertainty cone around the forecast track widens with lead time and shows where the centre could plausibly go, not the extent of the damage. Rainfall forecasts add a second dimension of risk that the wind track does not show: a weak system can still flood a city.

Disturbances. Systems that have not yet been named appear as storm disturbances with a low, medium or high risk of developing. They are tracked in separate collections and are not covered by email alerts.

Typical alert workflow

  1. A warning centre issues a bulletin for a developing cyclone
  2. ADAM creates the episode, generates the wind and rainfall products and publishes the storm on the Live Map
  3. Email alerts go to subscribers of the affected countries or areas
  4. Each new bulletin produces a new episode and updated products
  5. After landfall, heavy rainfall may trigger the flood module

Next steps