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Tropical cyclones warnings and guidance
WMO has designated Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres (RSMCs) who have responsibility for the issue of tropical cyclone warnings in their area and should be used as a first source of information. Links are also provided to other tropical cyclone warning centres and Met Office tropical cyclone forecast guidance.
WMO Severe Weather Information Centre
Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres
National Hurricane Center, Miami (Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific oceans east of 140° W)
Japan Meteorological Agency, Tokyo (Western North Pacific Ocean from Malay peninsula to 180° E)
Indian Meteorological Department, New Delhi (Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea)
Central Pacific Hurricane Center, Honolulu, Hawaii (North Pacific Ocean 140-180° W)
Météo France á La Réunion (South Indian Ocean from African coast to 90° E)
Meteorological Service, Nadi, Fiji (South Pacific Ocean east of 160° E and north of 25° S)
Other tropical cyclone warning centres
Australian Bureau of Meteorology (Southern hemisphere 90-160° E)
MetService, Wellington, New Zealand (South Pacific Ocean east of 160° E and south of 25° S)
Joint Typhoon Warning Center, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (West of 180° E)
Canadian Hurricane Centre, Halifax, Canada (Canadian Atlantic shores)
Met Office tropical cyclone guidance messages
The Met Office issues tropical cyclone guidance messages twice per day based on information from its global model forecasts. Links to these messages are provided below for information only. These are not official tropical cyclone forecasts and therefore should not be used exclusively to make decisions which will affect life or property. Refer to forecasts issued by one of the RSMCs (above) for official forecast information. Also note that the messages are only routinely issued during the stated seasons, although messages are issued out of season if a storm is active or forecast.
The messages are primarily designed to give an indication of the Met Office global model's forecast track of tropical cyclones, which are known to exhibit some skill. Explicit forecasts of maximum wind speed are not given as the model (at its current resolution) cannot resolve the wind field with sufficient detail. However, a qualitative indication of forecast wind strength is given based on the model's relative vorticity field (at the 850 hPa level).
North-west Pacific Season of issue: 1 May to 30 November
Atlantic and north-east Pacific Season of issue: 15 May to 30 November
North Indian Season of issue: whenever a storm is active or forecast
South-west Indian Season of issue: 1 November to 30 April
South Pacific and south-east Indian Season of issue: 1 November to 30 April
Tropical cyclone satellite images and observations
Satellite imagery and observations from the Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey, USA
