Date: 2026-07-15

# Extract Storms

#### 2026-07-15

The `defStormsList()` function allows to extract tropical cyclone track data for a given tropical cyclone or set of tropical cyclones nearby a given location of interest (`loi`). The `loi` can be defined using a country name, a specific point (defined by its longitude and latitude coordinates), or any user imported or defined spatial polygon shapefiles. By default only observations located within 300 km around the `loi` are extracted but this can be changed using the `max_dist` argument. Users can also extract tropical cyclones using the `name` of the storm or the `season` during which it occurred. If both the `name` and the `season` arguments are not filled then the `defStormsList()` function extracts all tropical cyclones since the first cyclonic season in the database. Once the data are extracted, the `plotStorms()` function can be used to visualize the trajectories and points of observation of extracted tropical cyclones on a map.

In the following example we use the `test_dataset` provided with the package to illustrate how cyclone track data can be extracted and visualised using country and cyclone names, specific point locations, and polygon shapefiles, as described below.

### Getting and ploting tropical cyclone track data

#### Using country names

We extract data on the tropical cyclone Pam (2015) nearby Vanuatu as follows:

    sds <- defStormsDataset(verbose = 0)

    ## Warning: No basin argument specified. StormR will work as expected
    ##              but cannot use basin filtering for speed-up when collecting data

    st <- defStormsList(sds = sds, loi = "Vanuatu", names = "PAM", verbose = 0)

The `defStormsList()` function returns a `stormsList` object in which the first slot `@data` contains a list of `Storm` objects. With the above specification the `stormsList` contains only one `Storm` object corresponding to cyclone PAM and the track data can be obtained using the `getObs()` function as follows:

    head(getObs(st, name = "PAM"))

    ##              iso.time      lon       lat msw scale rmw   pres   poci
    ## 1 2015-03-08 12:00:00 168.9000 -7.500000  13     0  93 100400 100500
    ## 2 2015-03-08 15:00:00 169.0425 -7.652509  14     0  93 100200 100200
    ## 3 2015-03-08 18:00:00 169.2000 -7.800000  15     0  93 100000 100000
    ## 4 2015-03-08 21:00:00 169.3850 -7.942489  15     0  93 100000 100000
    ## 5 2015-03-09 00:00:00 169.6000 -8.100000  15     0  93 100000 100100
    ## 6 2015-03-09 03:00:00 169.8425 -8.284999  16     0  93  99800 100100

The number of observation and the indices of the observations can be obtained using the `getNbObs()` and `getInObs()` as follows:

    getNbObs(st, name = "PAM")

    ## [1] 57

    getInObs(st, name = "PAM")

    ##  [1] 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47

The data can be visualised on a map as follows:

    plotStorms(st, labels = TRUE)

#### Using a specified point location

We can extract all tropical cyclones near Nouméa (longitude = 166.45, latitude = -22.27) between 2015 and 2021 as follows:

    pt <- c(166.45, -22.27)
    st <- defStormsList(sds = sds, loi = pt, seasons = c(2015, 2021), verbose = 0)

The number, the names, and the season of occurrence of the storms in the returned `stormsList` object can be obtained using the `getNbStorms()`, `getNames()`, and `getSeasons()` functions as follows:

    getNbStorms(st)

    ## [1] 4

    getNames(st)

    ## [1] "SOLO"   "GRETEL" "LUCAS"  "NIRAN"

    getSeasons(st)

    ##   SOLO GRETEL  LUCAS  NIRAN
    ##   2015   2020   2021   2021

We can plot track data for the topical cyclone Niran only using the `names` argument of the `plotStorms()` function as follows:

    plotStorms(st, names = "NIRAN", labels = TRUE, legends = "bottomleft")

The track data for Niran can also be extracted and stored in a new object using the `getStorm()` function as follows:

    NIRAN <- getStorm(st, name = "NIRAN")
    getNames(NIRAN)

    ## [1] "NIRAN"

#### Using a user defined spatial polygon shapefile

We can extract all tropical cyclones that occurred between 2015 and 2021 near the New Caledonia exclusive economic zone using the `eezNC` shapefile provided with the `StormR` package as follows:

    sp <- eezNC
    st <- defStormsList(sds = sds, loi = eezNC, season = c(2015, 2021), verbose = 0)

Information about the spatial extent of the track data exaction can be obtained using the `getLOI()`, `getBuffer()`, and `getBufferSize()` functions as follows:

    LOI <- getLOI(st)
    Buffer <- getBuffer(st)
    BufferSize <- getBufferSize(st)
    terra::plot(Buffer, lty = 3, main = paste(BufferSize, "km buffer arround New Caledonian EEZ", sep = " "))
    terra::plot(LOI, add = TRUE)
    terra::plot(countriesHigh, add = TRUE)

### Working with multiple storms

When extracting multiple storms for a long period of time, you can find yourself with multiple storms sharing the same name, that can later break `StormR`. You need to avoid working with duplicated name (especially relevant when both storms in a stormsList have the same name on the same season). Some workarounds may help you with that:

- use the “removeUnnamed” argument to `defStormsList`
- use the `renameStorms` function:

    getNames(st)

    ## [1] "PAM"     "SOLO"    "ULA"     "WINSTON" "ZENA"    "UESI"    "GRETEL"
    ## [8] "LUCAS"   "NIRAN"

    st_renamed <- renameStorms(st)
    getNames(st_renamed)

    ## [1] "PAM-2015"     "SOLO-2015"    "ULA-2016"     "WINSTON-2016" "ZENA-2016"
    ## [6] "UESI-2020"    "GRETEL-2020"  "LUCAS-2021"   "NIRAN-2021"

### Using different wind scale

By default the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHS) is used in `defStormsList()` to assign level to storms.

The maximum level reached in the scale for each cyclone can then be obtained using the `getScale()` function as follows:

    getScale(st)

    ##     PAM    SOLO     ULA WINSTON    ZENA    UESI  GRETEL   LUCAS   NIRAN
    ##       6       1       5       6       3       2       2       2       6

In this case, the SSHS scale is composed of 6 thresholds resulting in 6 levels spanning from level 0 to level 6.

We can only plot cyclones that reached level 5 and 6 using the `category` argument of the `plotStorms()` function as follows:

    plotStorms(st, category = c(5, 6), labels = FALSE, legends = "topright")

Finally, the user can choose his own scale and associated palette, by setting the `scale` and `scalePalette` inputs in `defStormsList()`. In the following example, we use the Tokyo’s tropical cyclone intensity scale to analyse tropical storm PAM.

StormR provides default palette and category names:

    # Tokyo's tropical cyclone intensity scale
    RSMCScale <- c(16.94, 24.44, 32.5, 43.33, 53.61)

    sts_jpn <- defStormsList(sds = sds,
                             loi = "Vanuatu",
                             names = "PAM",
                             scale = RSMCScale,
                             verbose = 0)

    plotStorms(sts_jpn)

But you can also easily customize them:

    RSMCPalette <- c("#6ec1ea", "#4dffff", "#c0ffc0", "#ffd98c", "#ff738a", "#a188fc")
    names(RSMCPalette) <- c("Tropical depression",
                            "Tropical storm",
                            "Severe tropical storm",
                            "Typhoon",
                            "Very strong typhoon",
                            "Violent typhoon")

    sts_jpn <- defStormsList(sds = sds,
                             loi = "Vanuatu",
                             names = "PAM",
                             scale = RSMCScale,
                             scalePalette = RSMCPalette,
                             verbose = 0)

    plotStorms(sts_jpn)

### Dynamic plot

`plotStorms` allows the user to dynamically plot tracks within an interactive map using leaflet library by setting `dynamicPlot` to `TRUE`. Doing so, the user can explore the map the way he wants and click and each dotted colored observations to see there informations.

    # Example of dynamic plot, using the same parameters above
    plotStorms(st, category = c(4, 5), labels = FALSE, legends = "topright", dynamicPlot=TRUE)