Of Tropical Cyclones and Heatmaps

Since the 1800s, 2,622 Tropical Cyclones entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility. 958 of these made landfall.

(please don’t cite me on that, though. this is not an official analysis)

Above is a heatmap of Tropical Cyclone points in the North Western Pacific Ocean since the late 1800s.

A heatmap represents the density of points in a given area. In this color scheme, brighter and yellower areas mean there are more points in that given area.

What can we infer from this map? :)

Personally, I’m liking this Viridis color palette. It’s very easy on the eyes.

Data sources:

1. Storm tracks from the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship
2. Philippine Area of Responsibility shapefile from DSWD GIS
3. Philippine borders from the Humanitarian Data Exchange

For relevant papers if you want to read about historical Tropical Cyclone statistics, check out the articles below.

1. A Manifestation of Climate Change? A Look at Typhoon Yolanda in Relation to the Historical Tropical Cyclone Archive
2. Observed trends and impacts of tropical cyclones in the Philippines

For official Tropical Cyclone forecasts:

1. PAGASA Monthly Tropical Cyclone Forecast https://www1.pagasa.dost.gov.ph/index.php/27-climatology-and-agrometeorology/502-monthly-tropical-cyclone-forecast